Alors oui, nous rebâtirons la cathédrale Notre-Dame
Notre Dame Cathedral was within “15 to 30 minutes” of complete destruction as firefighters battled to stop flames reaching its gothic bell towers, French authorities have revealed.
A greater disaster was averted by members of the Paris fire brigade, who risked their lives to remain inside the burning monument to create a wall of water between the raging fire and two towers on the west facade.
Merci, pompiers.
The cathedral is owned by the state and has been at the centre of a years-long dispute between the nation and the Paris archdiocese over who should finance restoration work to collapsed balustrades, crumbling gargoyles and cracked facades.
How about both? Or maybe a 75/25 split, with the church giving more because the cathedral is a nice little earner? Assuming it is; I’m guessing but I don’t know.
After the conflagration was declared completely extinguished, 15 hours after it started, the junior interior minister, Laurent Nunez, said the structure had been saved but remained vulnerable. He praised the actions of the firefighters but admitted the fate of the cathedral had been uncertain. “They saved the edifice, but it all came down to 15-30 minutes,” Nunez said.
Close close close.
The fire, which had started at the base of the 93-metre spire at about 6.40pm on Monday, spread through the cathedral’s ribbed roof, made up of hundreds of oak beams, some dating back to the 13th century. These beams, known as la forêt (the forest) because of their density, formed the cross-shaped roof that ran the length of the nave and transept above stone vaults.
As hundreds of tourists and Parisians stood and watched the flames leaping from the roof, there was shock and tears as the cathedral spire caught fire, burned and then collapsed into itself.
The 500 firefighters at the scene then battled to prevent the flames from reaching the two belfry towers, where the cathedral bells hang. If the wooden frame of the towers had caught fire, it could have sent the bells – the largest of which, the Emmanuel Bell, weighs 13 tonnes – crashing down, potentially causing the collapse of both gothic towers.
Cette cathédrale Notre-Dame, nous la rebâtirons. Tous ensemble. C’est une part de notre destin français. Je m’y engage : dès demain une souscription nationale sera lancée, et bien au-delà de nos frontières.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 15, 2019
Ce que nous avons vu cette nuit ensemble à Paris c’est cette capacité de nous mobiliser, de nous unir.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 16, 2019
L’incendie de Notre-Dame nous rappelle que notre histoire ne s’arrête jamais, jamais, et que nous aurons toujours des épreuves à surmonter.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 16, 2019
Nous sommes ce peuple de bâtisseurs. Nous avons tant à reconstruire. Alors oui, nous rebâtirons la cathédrale Notre-Dame, plus belle encore, et je souhaite que cela soit achevé d’ici 5 années, nous le pouvons. Et là aussi nous mobiliserons.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 16, 2019
I heard yesterday (BBC Radio4) that because of the separation of church and state in France, the state own all the church buildings. I know, it sounds like gibberish and I’m sorry that I can’t back this up in any way, but I have to go to work now. Oh and also, entry seemed to be free because there was talk about charging entry to pay for the repairs.
As much as I would like to stick it to the catholic church, if it is state property, then it is state responsibility to repair it, unless the diocese contributed to the conflagration through some sort of negligence. And it is also government responsibility to charge a rent commensurate with this amazing location.
I believe the building itself is owned by the state but the church has the perpetual right to use it for religious purposes. This means that – as Catwhisperer said – they can’t charge for entry. It was certainly free to get in the last time I was there but I’m fairly sure we had to pay to go up the tower. I’ve no idea whether that money went to the church or the state.
Most of the visitors seemed to put money in the collection boxes, including us. I think we sort of assumed that it would pay for the upkeep of the building, but thinking back I realise this was just a completely unwarranted assumption. Maybe it was spirited off to the church in general. Maybe it was collected by or shared with the state, no idea.
All in all, though, I suspect the state earns rather more from the place through tourism than the church does.
Either way, I’m not sure the state should have sole responsibility to repair the building, even though it owns it. As far as I know, the ownership is more of a formality than anything else and the church (and only the church) gets to use it for free and forever.
Personally, I’m waiting to see how much the British government chips in to the restoration fund and compare it to the amount they’ve spent on Grenfell and its aftermath.
I mean, I don’t want to sound all callous and everything, but the NOtre Dame has gone through several “episodes” in its life (the spire is a recent addition, the rose window is a replacement, etc.) and has been and will be rebuilt.
But no-one died. Grenfell, in human terms, is a much bigger tragedy, but where was the international response on this scale? Where was the outpouring of grief? (Some of the terms I’ve heard used to describe the Notre Dame fire would be OTT describing a fire in an orphanage.) Why are some of the survivors still homeless?
Yes, fair point, as is the point about arson fires in black churches in Louisiana, and similar disasters happening to people without the social clout to put them in the spotlight.
I did a search on “Grenfell” and found 14 posts, two of them guest posts. I haven’t yet followed up on those churches though.