It's heartbreaking to hear the crowds singing hymns.
No reports of lives lost, yet. One seriously injured firefighter, though. Could have been much, much worse, had the fire happened the day before, when the place was presumably packed with Palm Sunday celebrants.
Regarding the spire, I was thinking of these lines from
the Édith Piaf song, "Notre Dame de Paris":
Quote:
La vieille flèche
Qui lèche
Le plafond gris de Paris
The old spire
That licks
The gray ceiling of Paris
|
Aw.
The spire was actually fairly new-fangled, as such things go--only about 150 years old. Like many of the gargoyles, it was part of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's 19th-century restoration, which many architectural critics decried as faux-Gothic at the time. (A few years ago, when I found out that I would finally, after decades of studying French, have the opportunity to visit France, I read a Spanish critic's colorful comments about that restoration. Maybe I'll translate them. Not this week though--my parish music director quit a few weeks ago, and I've got a lot of extra cantoring to do.)
A replica of the spire can be built. But much--including the carved and painted wooden panels that I loved in the altar area--was irreplaceable. And the real challenge will be rebuilding the many layers of structure that any rebuilt spire would need to stand on. Including the structural stuff under the main floor of the cathedral itself. I have to presume that was damaged, if not completely destroyed.
There's still concern about the walls falling in. Remove the keystone of an arch, and the whole structure is less stable. The stone walls weren't just unsupported like that when they were erected. There was wooden bracing holding everything in place until the roof could be put in to stabilize things. Now, not only is the roof gone, the structure under the main floor is probably very iffy now, too.
Very good news about the towers being saved. It was already disturbingly reminiscent of 9-11, even without the towers falling.
Notre Dame
Linear Mode
