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  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Not exactly appropriate for here, but RIP Cathedral de Notre Dame.

She was a grand lady and one of the few structures that actually struck me with awe.

sub-buzz-11516-1555349129-1.jpg?downsize=700:*&output-format=auto&output-quality=auto

  • Sad 7
Posted

RIP, Dick Dale and Rankin Roger.  Both had an impact on me.

We were in Paris in 2010 and stopped by to take in one of humanities grander accomplishments.  Crushing to watch the spire fall...

HS

Posted

It is truly shocking. Difficult to take in. In the UK we are very close to Paris, just a fast train journey from London to Gare du Nord in Paris through the Channel Tunnel, and we visit frequently. Haven't visited Notre Dame for many years, because it tends to be a crowded tourist magnet (and quite rightly so). But it is always there - a prominent feature along the bank of the Seine.

I was hearing just now on the radio that the English king Henry VI was crowned there in the mid 1400's, and Charles I (the one Oliver Cromwell had beheaded in 1649) was married there.

Apparently it was undergoing restoration at the time of the fire.  Not saying that is why it burnt, but it sounds plausible.

Dreadful.

Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, Craig Sawyers said:

It is truly shocking. Difficult to take in. In the UK we are very close to Paris, just a fast train journey from London to Gare du Nord in Paris through the Channel Tunnel, and we visit frequently. Haven't visited Notre Dame for many years, because it tends to be a crowded tourist magnet (and quite rightly so). But it is always there - a prominent feature along the bank of the Seine.

I was hearing just now on the radio that the English king Henry VI was crowned there in the mid 1400's, and Charles I (the one Oliver Cromwell had beheaded in 1649) was married there.

Apparently it was undergoing restoration at the time of the fire.  Not saying that is why it burnt, but it sounds plausible.

Dreadful.

The vault did its job.  If that damned spire hadn't been put on in the 19th century, the interior would be untouched (it is mostly untouched, because the vault is a firewall, literally, but the spire punctured it in one place, when it collapsed). The designers and builders of the original structure did their jobs, and it's amazing that they came from an era of non-mathematical architecture (and fortunately the Notre Dame designers were conservative: some cathedrals were slightly too ambitious, and collapsed). 

Fires caused by renovations have burnt several cathedrals.*

*I studied cathedral construction as part of my history degree.

Edited by EdipisReks1
  • Like 1
Posted

Indeed. Not only cathedrals. The iconic Cutty Sark in London burned in 2012 during restoration when a vacuum cleaner was left switched on overnight with this result

Image result for cutty sark fire

And the Charles Rennie MacIntosh school of art in Glasgow burned down during restoration work in 2014

Flames-burst-through-the-windows-of-the-Glasgow-School-of-Art-after-a-fire-broke-out-on-the-top-floor-of-the-building.jpg

Then during rebuilding in 2018 it burned down a second time

Image result for charles rennie mackintosh fire

  • Sad 1

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