Notre-Dame

[GG.]

Was looking through a few pics I took back in 2011 when I last visited it. Heartbreaking to think those beautiful stained glass rose windows may have been destroyed.

Apparently there were 13,000 oak trees felled in the twelfth century to make the roof - essentially an entire medieval forest.

[Mito Man]

I don’t know how much of this is true from Twitter but supposedly only one of the large round stain glass windows is destroyed, the stone roof under the timber roof has held up, and all the sacred treasures inside were saved. The spire was being renovated and had all of the ornaments removed for refurbishment.

Could be BS, hopefully it isn’t.

[GG.]

No I think its true - the rose windows have gone.

[Gwaredd]

Such tremendous skill and craftmanship lost in a few hours. Whatever your belief, this was such a beautiful building.

[Gwaredd]

In fairness though, that scaffolding has held up really well!

[mik]

Such tremendous skill and craftmanship lost in a few hours. Whatever your belief, this was such a beautiful building.

Very much that.

Reminded me immediately of the Glasgow School Of Art. Smaller scale issue, but one of Glasgow's best known pieces of architecture and it looks very unlikely anything of the building will now be save-able.

[Gwaredd]

It took over 200 years of massively skilled people to create that. I can't see it ever being rebuilt. Is it even worth rebuilding though? It won't ever be the same.

[GG.]

Not sure that's necessarily true - there are some amazing facsimile reconstructions of buildings that were almost, or actually, totally destroyed.

Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto was burned to the ground by a vengeful monk and people have posted some links to the amazing reconstruction of the cloth hall in Ypres destroyed during the war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ypres_Cloth_Hall

It will be truly amazing if they manage to recreate its former glory but let's live in hope.

[Rich B]

I expect it’ll come down to how much is saved. If it’s a restoration of the existing structure then it’s probably one set of rules, but if it’s a total rebuild then modern building regulations would probably make it impossible to reconstruct faithfully. You’d end up with a Disney princess castle.

Huge loss..

[Gwaredd]

Would you want it rebuilt though? The history is gone.

[Mito Man]

The main structure and 2 towers have survived so of course they should rebuild it and Macron is already setting up a crowdfund to restore it. The history hasn’t all gone, many of the relics were saved, the stone work is all there and it’s a national monument.

[Simon]

This photo seems to confirm that a lot of the upper stone roof survived and the wooden roof fell onto it and burned - and would explain why the flames were so high above the 'roof', when in reality there's no way they could've emerged if burning on the floor inside the cathedral.

[Simon]

More evidence to support my assertion.

[mik]

Anything prior to analysis by structural engineers is just conjecture

[Simon]

Hmmm, only to a point. I think people were imagining that the inside of ND was burning, whereas the photo proves that wasn't really the case. Sure it all needs assessing by professionals, but what we've just seen is a lot of roof and spire burning and not a lot else as can be seen from the photos.

[nuttinnew]

"Posted at 2:33
Fire 'under control'
The blaze at the cathedral has now been brought under control, says a spokesperson for the firefighters at the scene"

[dinny_g]

Pictures this morning are amazing - not what I was expecting at all.

Looks promising for a restoration

[Rich B]

I was reading that some french billionaires have donated hundreds of millions to the renovation fund. One is married to Salma Hayek...

Doing “ok” then!

[JonMad]

Well done French firefighters (500 of them, apparently!).

Horrible to see that last night. Remarkable they got lots of the art and other pieces out. I can imagine a line of people passing stuff out and piling it up outside somewhere. Here's Jesus' crown of thorns, oh, stick it over there next to the kerb.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I was reading that some french billionaires have donated hundreds of millions to the renovation fund. One is married to Salma Hayek...

Doing “ok” then!

Batard