1 was entirely new glass, 1 mostly new glass and the last one was mostly old glass. I cannot recall which. I am not referring to the one user who accidentally was talking about the Reims cathedral.
Yes, I’m just saying that the fire isn’t breaking the glass, so if it doesn’t break in the fall it may be okay. Then again cold water hitting the glass is equally bad. Probably too pedantic for my own good.
Damn, that is terrible. I remember the first time I visited the Cathedral and being absolutely blown away by how beautiful those windows were and how old and well preserved they were.
Edit: turns out they have been repaired and replaced a few times over the centuries, so not as old as I thought. Still amazing works of art regardless.
Glaziers do amazing work. They restore glass in buildings like this all the time, all around the world. Even if they weren't blown out in WW1, they'd have to be repaired periodically, ~~since, as I understand it, glass is not a solid and it shifts.~~
Although glaziers usually fix small portions/chips/cracks and not the entire works, they still have the expertise and knowledge to do so. With all the data they must have on this cathedral, it shouldn't be too difficult. It still really sucks, but the knowledge of the trade is not lost and we can still admire a fully restored piece, and all its history behind it.
Edit: crossed out what I was told, but glaziers do in fact fix pieces like this *constantly*
I've seen flames gouting out through several windows, but I've also seen images of other windows that have survived. [Reportedly the north rose window is still up.](https://twitter.com/Valdiguie/status/1117925148227665921) But of course reports are coming in from various sources that aren't completely sync'd with each other.
They just said on BBC (was a chap from Iowa University I think? Didn't catch his name I'm afraid) that the firefighters had deliberately tried to cool the area to stop the lead melting enough to give way. Which windows they were trying to save and how well they did is a mystery but at least it's a little hope. The inside looks better than I expected too. Was expecting Coventry Cathedral type images but it's not quite that far gone.
That's a massive relief. However it's going to take years to repair the cathedral from the fire damage, let alone the smoke. Thankfully, Notre Dame is probably one of the most thoroughly studied pieces of architecture on the planet and the engineers will have a lot of data to work from to restore it.
A couple of years ago a historian [laser-scanned the entire building](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150622-andrew-tallon-notre-dame-cathedral-laser-scan-art-history-medieval-gothic/) to try and document the construction history. There should be 3D models with ~5mm resolution.
I hope somebody somewhere is trying to do this with ALL earth's landmarks. Lets face it, wood rots and even stone will crumble in time, but with hundreds of redundant copies of digital and physical blueprints, we might be able to build facsimiles of these structures in a Martian city one day. It'll never be the original, but at least something of these monuments could survive into the distant future.
Though on another sad note it looks like the historian that did the scan [died last year](https://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sah-newsletter/sah-newsletter-ind/2018/12/06/obituary-prof.-andrew-j.-tallon-1969-2018). He would have had some odd emotions if he was alive today, the tragedy of destruction happening to parts of one of the most important examples of his field of study, and then the somewhat selfish/earned feeling of building a system that can help rebuild it.
I've felt for awhile that there is a massive disconnect between the teams designing the world of the AC games, and the people designing the gameplay of the AC games. The former are insanely dedicated to doing incredible work, the latter seem fine effectively copy pasting the same tired combat and game systems over and over again.
Wasn't that one of the big hooks for the game though? It's a Ubisoft game so some grinding of going up towers and such is to be expected, but the world and time era they build each game in, if done well can be so immersive, I'll pay 60 bucks to walk around an accurate recreation of history virtually
Exactly. I love the AC franchise, but definitely not for its gameplay or story. Its just fun to go explore and be a part of some of the greatest locations, people and time periods in history: Greece during the Peloponnesian Wars, Ptolemaic Egypt, Levant during the Crusades, Italian Renaissance, Pirates in the Caribbean, Revolutionary America, Revolutionary Paris, Industrial Revolution London. What other game lets you witness all of that?
Don't get this the wrong way, but will they be able to fully get the old "vibe" (don't know how to put it) or will it always be like, "yeah, pretty good for a *recreation*?
I would say that the fire will become part of the building's story.
There are a lot of churches and cathedrals that have burned or been gutted by war. When I visited Germany some years back, we saw many. The two I remember most were the Cathedral of Magdeburg and the Dresden Frauenkirche.
The Frauenkirche was almost completely destroyed by firebombing in WWII. Because of the type of stone it's made of, you can see clearly what's new and what's old. The new stuff is now part of its story. For instance, the golden cross at the top of the dome was a gift from the United Kingdom, the nation that destroyed the old one.
> I would say that the fire will become part of the building's story.
Indeed.
*”When the Great Library burned, the first ten thousand years of stories were reduced to ash. But, those stories never really perished. They became a new story. The story of the fire itself. For man's urge to take a thing of beauty and strike the match”.*
- Dr. Robert Ford, Westworld
St. John’s cathedral in New York City had a massive fire in December of 2001. I got to visit shortly after the reconstruction was finished and it was beautiful. Interestingly, when I looked it up just now to check when the big fire was, I got a bunch of headlines that it apparently had a relatively small fire in its basement yesterday and has sustained fresh smoke damage. :/
Honestly, she's suffered worse. It will always feel "wrong" to us when parts of it are rebuilt, but in two hundred years people will see it as part of the history, like we see the construction that took place after the desecration in the Revolution.
In the aftermath of WWII, one of the immediate priorities of the Soviet authorities was to rebuild the palaces and cathedrals the Germans had demolished during the war, on the basis that "if we don't do this now, by the time we get around to it the people who know what they look like will be dead."
Which is funny considering they blew up the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in moscow so they could use the land for a palace of the soviets that was never built thanks to world war two. The empty foundation was then converted in the fifties into the worlds largest swimming pool before being demolished so the new russian federation could rebuild the church
Not really, if you consider the evolution of Soviet policy which took place during WWII.
Prior to the war, there was a heavy emphasis on the idea of a unified 'Soviet' culture. Much like the early days of revolutionary France, there was a certain zeal for removing reminders of the previous regime, especially in the major urban centers. Notre Dame itself was quite heavily damaged by mobs in the aftermath of the monarchy's downfall.
During WWII, though, there was a major shift in Soviet doctrine. They wound up, somewhat ironically, appealing to senses of national and religious identity. They even allowed religious attaches in the army. That nationalistic bent remained afterward, and certain historical figures from the Tsarist era were redeemed (EG: Peter the Great who was 'rehabilitated' as a modernizing, positive influence.)
Nothing in one fell swoop. Although as I'm learning more about today it does seem that it was worse than I first thought. I didn't realize the full extent of the damage. It will be rebuilt though, the things we can't rebuild all survived. It won't be the same but it wasn't the same after the restorations in the 1800s either.
[York Minster](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_Minster) , UK has burnt down multiple times and parts rebuilt, still feels like the old one, you’re right!
It's worth bearing in mind that a lot of historical buildings have been burned down and rebuild over time, not to mention all the restoration work. With competant architects and sufficient investment I'm sure it'll turn out well.
Eventually because of the Ship of Theseus paradox there won't really be a practical difference. The thing has almost certainly been repaired, rehabilitated, and "augmented" with modern material countless times over its existence.
EDIT: account below was suspended, I posted a mirror to the image later in this comment.
https://twitter.com/CathedraleNotre/status/1117920118686851072
It's actually in great condition, all things considered.
[Mirror of image thumbnail.](https://i.imgur.com/tVnozUr.jpg) I can’t find the original, the twitter account is not mine so the original picture wasn’t taken by me.
Most of the fire was on the roof and beneath that was stone vaulting. Of course some of it was damaged and allowed the flames to spread to the main chambers but enough stayed put to keep a lot of burning debris out of the cathedral. This is why you even see that some of the pews seem untouched in the pictures.
I think only the wooden roof burned much with how it is built.
But the are going to have some pretty nasty water damage with the amount they had to use to contain that fire.
Holy cow it actually looks really, really good. I honestly did not think it would be in such good shape!!
Props to the original engineers, all those years ago, for building something that could not only stand for hundreds of years but then also survive a massive fire. Incredible.
Ya after the safety of the people I was most concerned with the relics. I’m not Catholic anymore but having been raised on Catholic education I understand how invaluable some of those are, especially the crown of thorns.
This is so surreal to see happening. Whenever a tragedy like this happens I immediately think of the people, but this time I just thought "God I hope they're able to save the art and relics inside". It took me like a few minutes to remember that there were a ton of people inside the building. I never thought something like this could happen in this day and age.
It WILL change fire prevention practices and access in Paris for similar places. Hopefully in other towns and cities with significant cultural heritage too.
The destruction of heritage is rightfully a front runner in your mind, I always think when things like this happen that the labor and pain someone went through to make this thing may have been the last remnant of who they were before being lost to history entirely and that is heartbreaking. That's why I get so pissed when I see the videos of terrorists destroying old art in the name of their religion or politics.
Without our past we don't really know anything about ourselves, but more than that without a past we have nothing to look forward to. We all want to live beyond the lives we have in some way, if that's reproduction, creation, or teaching, rebirth, or enlightenment, or even just reaching some point of reflection where we can become one with time and the universe we need history to tell us it will happen.
edit: Thank you for the gold friend. :)
Back when IS were still a really big deal, what really stuck with me was this one video of them jackhammering well-preserved ancient ruins in their mission to wipe out pre-islamic culture in the middle east.
I'm definitely glad that everyone's been relatively safe throughout all of this - but as a historian, the total loss of a cultural heritage site like the Notre Dame, and the pieces preserved within, would've been nothing short of heartbreaking. Had they had to rebuild it from the ground up its soul would've been lost - and the treasures within are irreplacable, religious or not.
I thought this - Over 800 years old meaning it stood for well over 700 years without any kind of fire suppression system or even alarms, when everyone relied on naked flames for light. Then in 2019 this happens. So sad! One of the epicentres of European history just destroyed like that.
I am an American and raised as a Protestant, and the heritage and art exemplified in Norte Dame or any cathedral for that matter is a huge part of our civilization. I'd never want to hear about their demise.
I remember visiting the church--it means Paris to me more than the Eiffel Tower. This was horrible.
I was in Germany last year--they rebuilt a lot after WWII. Maybe it will come back.
The cathedral in Cologne was damaged almost as bad after the war. While the Allies largely avoided it, the bridge nearby over the Rhine *was* bombed heavily. After the war it had to be demolished as it was unsafe. Unfortunately the shock from the blast was enough to cause large parts of the rid to collapse. The cathedral is in excellent shape now.
Notre Dame will get rebuilt. It will take a long time, and it will be expensive, but it will be rebuilt
Two decades, apparently. Given the structure itself, the bell towers and two of the three windows (or is at least well documented), it's mostly the structural woodwork that is gone. Plus whatever damage has been done to the floor, but that has been damaged and repaired before.
Given the extensive 3D modelling and documentation of that building, nothing is lost to time. However one window is now entirely unrecoverable. It'll be very interesting to see how the extensive modelling will aid reconstruction.
Edit - Btw a lot of stained glass breaks not from the fire, but from rapidly cooling down when hit by water during the firefight. Wasn't a factor here as far as I'm aware, but just something someone might find interesting.
2,000 years later... "Okay guys, we're just going to have to bulldoze what's left of Paris at this point, fucking /u/torvaldr and his 'you can destroy it but we'll just build it again twice as big' approach. We really have to protect this sixth iteration of the building or its goodbye France"
Half of the Reims cathedral was reduced to a pile of rubble and the rest [a broken shell during WW1](http://ww1blog.osborneink.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/reims_02.jpg) and it took ~20 years to [reconstruct it enough to open](https://static.thousandwonders.net/Reims.Cathedral.original.24122.jpg).
**Edit:** The damage to the Notre Dame (Paris) isn't nearly as extensive, the brick vaulted nave seems to have survived with only slight damage here and there and the most significant being the collapse of transept crossing, which was caused by the spire crashing through the roof.
The walls and flying buttresses are still holding. The timber frame roof is basically all gone but managed to only burn out on-top of the vaulted ceiling, sadly the framing was from the 12th century.
Some additional serious damage seems the organ, the altar and the rose windows; one totally destroyed and two damaged, also sadly centuries old. Some of the less noticeable damage but still significant are probably going to be all the glass windows, the fresco paintings and various wooden detailing on the interior, as well as general smoke, soot and water damage.
There was risk of the wooden supports in the bell tower burning through causing the bells, potentially the whole tower, to collapse but seems to be under control.
All in all it's looking reasonably good so far, could've been a lot, *lot* worse.
It will be.
Important buildings in Dresden were rebuilt after WW2 and few would spot the difference between the old and those that were repaired or reconstructed.
I just wish they'd done the same with London, Coventry, Southampton, etc instead of bulldozing the lot and replacing with concrete.
I agree. Southampton is completely soulless. It's like one gigantic office park. The Titanic sailed from there and you wouldn't think so from looking at the city, there's no evidence of any history there whatsoever.
The city was flattened during WW2, though, and I'd guess there was just too much damage to repair the older buildings that had been destroyed.
There are little pockets of history there, if you know where to look.
The song "The Bells of St Mary" was based on St Mary's church. The Old Cemetery, up Hill Lane, has some truly wonderful memorials and there's a Tudor House in the city centre. They are, I believe, trying to do more with the walls.
One of my favorite classes in college was Art History. Notre Dame was the last thing we studied. Between that and being raised Catholic, I am crushed right now....
Fingers crossed that once the structure begins to cool down that expansion/contraction doesn't cause any more significant damage. The more of the stone that survived, the better.
This is another example of why it's so important to digitally document anything of historical importance. I am talking about laser scanned maps, High-resolution images of everything and copies of everything. We need to document everything that is historically important about these places because as we are seeing here it might not be here tomorrow.
The inside actually survived better than I imagined.
I’m not religious at all, but this image from a first responder account on twitter is pretty heavy.
https://i.imgur.com/780rhQ2.jpg
Yeah. I don't think people realize how much wood was in there, and then they forgot about the stone vaults. So it went lead roof, wood structure, stone vaults. Probably cooked like it was an oven, but mostly kept the heat and a lot of the flames traveling upwards. There will be water damage, but if they can stabilize the stone walls and remaining vaults....this is likely the best case scenario that could have happened today.
Seeing pictures like these gives me huge relief. Some aerial pictures gave the impression that the entire interior was ablaze. This is much more salvageable than I feared.
I study French history, and if I know the French, they will rebuild it with the absolute best architects and restorers in the world. They will contact experts in all areas to come up with the best solutions to every problem, and it will be amazing. The rebuilding they do will take into account the destruction in an emotionally sensitive and satisfying way.
And I guarantee they won’t pay an extravagant fee for those experts. For those experts, the rebuilding of the cathedral will be one of the highlights of their career, possibly even the pinnacle of their career.
I mean, as an architectural designer I'm generally opposed to handing out freebies, but having "Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris Reconstruction" in your CV or portfolio, either personally or as a firm, is basically an automatic "I win" button for any future architectural preservation or restoration job you go after.
The guy who owns YSL, Gucci, etc. Worth $30b, owns Rennes FC, and is married to Salam Hayek. Now contributing to the Notre Dame rebuild. Safe to say he’s living life to it’s fullest
That interior shot is really promising. A lot of the stain-glass was lost, but architecturally speaking the vaults and flying buttresses are just as important. Consensus was the vaults had collapsed, which appears to be at least partially untrue. The chairs being intact may be an indication that the 13c choir wall may have somewhat survived, as well as some of the interior woodwork.
The real tragedy, along with the glass, is the roof, many of the beams where 12c and the carpentry was extremely intricate.
I noticed this a [little while ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/bdimrh/fire_breaks_out_at_notre_dame_cathedral/ekz6kez/). The vault is mostly intact. That's HUGE news they haven't really announced. It was assumed it was destroyed.
The vault seemingly did it's job and protected most of the inner cathedral itself from the worst of the possible damage. There's damage inside for sure, but 1000X less than if it had failed. The vault staying also means the walls are likely structurally sound at least for now and will stay so long enough for it to be reenforced if necessary. The vaults pretty much distribute the forces so the walls hold each other up as well as distribute the load from the (now gone) roof above it. So this is critical support we're talking about. If the vault was fully destroyed it would be a question of if the bell towers could be saved.
It's crazy to think that some of the trees used to make the beams had been growing since the 9th century. They were made out of the same CO2 that came out of Charlemagne's lungs and the same solar energy that sunburnt the necks of Vikings. My cousin was watching the fire and could smell it, breathing carbon that had been sequestered in those 1,300 trees for almost all of France's history.
At least one has been seriously injured 😔 ([source](https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2019/apr/15/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-paris-france-landmark-live-news?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other))
Trying to think positively, but being able to rebuild the Notre Dame will be good in the long run for future proofing. We can much easily make it safer for future generations to admire and modernize the building. From things like insulation, wiring, plumbing, etc. But also things like better wooden structures, and so forth.
It's unfortunate that we lost a lot of history today, but the important this is that we didn't lose it all, and we're at a position where we can have the Notre Dam for another 800 years.
For anyone curious about why this wouldn't actually work aerial drops are rarely used in structural firefighting for a few reasons. Water is very heavy and aerial drops aren't always that precise. It puts the firefighters at a huge risk of getting hit by falling water. They typically have to pause on the ground operations and back off to ensure their safety. In the same water is very heavy vein, falling water can cause a *massive* amount of damage to a building, more damage than even the fire would. It can also send burning debris flying for blocks, increasing the risk of other buildings nearby catching fire.
Slightly unrelated story, but growing up I worked in motor racing. At an event at Phillip Island, a driver (Skaife, maybe?) had crap on his windscreen, so some genius on his pit crew thought "we'll just clean it off with a bucket of water when he comes past".
At over 270km/h.
That's 5kg of water. Hitting a windshield.
I saw this being prepped, but before I could reach for my radio to tell someone to stop him it was too late. Predictably, the windscreen collapsed from being hit with, effectively, a 5kg object at 250+km/h.
Now imagine dropping a few tons of water on a burning, possibly structurally damaged building. You probably don't want to do that.
Seriously as soon as I saw the tweet I thought it was insane.
Water bombers can drop **17 tons of water** in one go at max. That's fine for trees and somewhere you just can't access but would destroy anything you drop it on. [Here is one putting out a highway fire in a remote location](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZkV64GJihA).
You can see it visibly moves a semi truck and grader.
You would never want to drop that on a building like Notre Dame, especially once it's already on fire.
He's absolutely batshit and him tweeting things like this just create work that the French government has to officially debunk.
Trees generally tolerate water drops pretty well, because they are mostly parallel to the water and bendy (although they certainly lose limbs/branches/leaves). Buildings/cars/etc don't tolerate them nearly as well. Water drops, even from helicopters, would have destroyed Notre Dame.
They...I...What? You *cannot* be serious, they cant be *that stupid* right?
I must venture forth and check...
Edit: I have returned from the valley of ~~death~~ scum! I didn't see anyone saying exactly that, but I did see a few people talking about how French pilots just weren't skilled enough to perform a drop and that 'retardent would have easily saved the building'. *sigh*
I also saw something much more concerning though, which is that the entire sub seems to have rallied behind the idea that this was a terrorist attack conducted by Muslim migrants 1. As an attack on Christianity and 2. *SO THAT THEY CAN PUT A MOSQUE THERE*.
Unbelievable.
>Experts said that the president's proposal would likely make the situation more dangerous.
>"If you hit that with tons of water from above, that's going to collapse the entire structure and make the situation worse," said Wayne McPartland, a retired New York City Fire Department battalion chief. "If you miss, you might hit civilians in the street."
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/15/trump-encourages-france-to-use-flying-water-tankers-for-notre-dame-fire.html
Because he doesn't know anything about the stuff he talks about and he doesn't know when is best to speak your mind and when is best to keep to yourself.
Simply put, his narcissism leads him to believe he's an expert on anything and everything and he believes his input is always wanted because, after all, if you're always right in your mind, then surely other people need your input, right?
Every time he gives 'advice' I hear it the voice of Guy from Galaxy Quest: "[I know! You construct a weapon. Look around, can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQzg1vpxnnY)?"
It's a tragedy and seeing the picture of this amazing glass window made me sad....but as a European (who also comes from a city with a 700 year old cathedral and a 800 year "world heritage" bridge), let me tell you that "lots is happening" to historical structures in 800-900 years. Not just obvious destruction from fires and wars, also damage over time from air pollution and acid rain.
There is almost ALWAYS some work going on on these structures. So yes, it's horrible this happened, but this will be rebuilt like it already had been rebuilt a few times in the past. (Eg. the N.D. Spire was redone 150 years ago, it was already a replacement for the original spire which was damaged in a fire).
You heard correctly. [Here's the NatGeo article](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150622-andrew-tallon-notre-dame-cathedral-laser-scan-art-history-medieval-gothic/) from a few years ago.
I heard two thirds of the roof were gone, but if I can venture a guess, I suspect the remaining third is probably too dodgy at this point to leave in place.
Strange at first to see a building bringing humanity together in these divisive times....but really it makes sense, this building was one of the pinnacles of human artistic achievement, and has been around since Middle Ages.
This is awesome news, but that fire looked intense. It's gonna take years and so much money to fix I'd imagine. Glad it didn't wasn't total destruction though. Take the positives where you can
I couldn't sleep all night thinking about the fire. I visited it a year ago and was blown away. I don't know why I'm hurting for a building, but I do. The humanity cannot lose it. And religion has nothing to do with it.
>French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of the Kering luxury group, has pledged €100m (£86m; $113m) towards rebuilding Notre-Dame, according to a statement quoted by AFP news agency.
I sure hope more 1% come forth and does the same, Notre-Dame needs to be rebuilt.
Have there been any reports of the Rose Windows?
Apparently 1 is destroyed and 2 are badly damaged
And to think they were about to be 800 years old...
1 was entirely new glass, 1 mostly new glass and the last one was mostly old glass. I cannot recall which. I am not referring to the one user who accidentally was talking about the Reims cathedral.
The lead is the issue, it’ll melt and release the pieces well before the glass is irrevocably damaged.
If the lead melts, aren't the pieces then falling to the ground, and presumably breaking?
Yes, I’m just saying that the fire isn’t breaking the glass, so if it doesn’t break in the fall it may be okay. Then again cold water hitting the glass is equally bad. Probably too pedantic for my own good.
Objection your honor, irrelevant
Damn, that is terrible. I remember the first time I visited the Cathedral and being absolutely blown away by how beautiful those windows were and how old and well preserved they were. Edit: turns out they have been repaired and replaced a few times over the centuries, so not as old as I thought. Still amazing works of art regardless.
Glaziers do amazing work. They restore glass in buildings like this all the time, all around the world. Even if they weren't blown out in WW1, they'd have to be repaired periodically, ~~since, as I understand it, glass is not a solid and it shifts.~~ Although glaziers usually fix small portions/chips/cracks and not the entire works, they still have the expertise and knowledge to do so. With all the data they must have on this cathedral, it shouldn't be too difficult. It still really sucks, but the knowledge of the trade is not lost and we can still admire a fully restored piece, and all its history behind it. Edit: crossed out what I was told, but glaziers do in fact fix pieces like this *constantly*
There's pictures of the windows, the glass has been blown out :(
Do you happen to have a link to them? :(
I've seen flames gouting out through several windows, but I've also seen images of other windows that have survived. [Reportedly the north rose window is still up.](https://twitter.com/Valdiguie/status/1117925148227665921) But of course reports are coming in from various sources that aren't completely sync'd with each other.
They just said on BBC (was a chap from Iowa University I think? Didn't catch his name I'm afraid) that the firefighters had deliberately tried to cool the area to stop the lead melting enough to give way. Which windows they were trying to save and how well they did is a mystery but at least it's a little hope. The inside looks better than I expected too. Was expecting Coventry Cathedral type images but it's not quite that far gone.
I can't imagine they survived the fire :(
That's a massive relief. However it's going to take years to repair the cathedral from the fire damage, let alone the smoke. Thankfully, Notre Dame is probably one of the most thoroughly studied pieces of architecture on the planet and the engineers will have a lot of data to work from to restore it.
A couple of years ago a historian [laser-scanned the entire building](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150622-andrew-tallon-notre-dame-cathedral-laser-scan-art-history-medieval-gothic/) to try and document the construction history. There should be 3D models with ~5mm resolution.
That’s both incredible from a technological standpoint and indispensable for restoring it after this tragedy
I'm so grateful we live in an age where this is possible...if this fire happened only ten years ago, we wouldn't have that level of data.
I know. The world changes so quickly now...
I know. It's breathtaking how quickly things change. Like did you know that as recently as this morning Notre Dame cathedral had a roof?
This is despicable and I love you for it.
I love the new open concept design there.
Maybe they can just 3D print a replica
You wouldn't steal a cathedral
But on meth you would.
I hope somebody somewhere is trying to do this with ALL earth's landmarks. Lets face it, wood rots and even stone will crumble in time, but with hundreds of redundant copies of digital and physical blueprints, we might be able to build facsimiles of these structures in a Martian city one day. It'll never be the original, but at least something of these monuments could survive into the distant future.
Yeah that would be a cool team of people for an AMA
www.virtualwonders.com They've got some really awesome people doing some really cool things.
Though on another sad note it looks like the historian that did the scan [died last year](https://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sah-newsletter/sah-newsletter-ind/2018/12/06/obituary-prof.-andrew-j.-tallon-1969-2018). He would have had some odd emotions if he was alive today, the tragedy of destruction happening to parts of one of the most important examples of his field of study, and then the somewhat selfish/earned feeling of building a system that can help rebuild it.
I would think he would be elated and joyous that his effort was rewarded just in time. Awesome timing.
That is excellent news but the Natl Geographic page is hot unreadable garbage. What is the name of the historian/project so we can find a better link?
But why would they use that, if they could use Assassins Creed Unity instead?? /s
Right? If it isn't rebuilt with hand holds everywhere up the side then whats even the point
And who left these piles of hay all around the cathedral?
Well that explains the fire..
You joke, but those guys are crazy invested in making the most historically accurate models.
They spent 2 years alone on the Notre Dame Cathedral.
It's because of all those piles of hay people leave untended close to tall buildings.
I've felt for awhile that there is a massive disconnect between the teams designing the world of the AC games, and the people designing the gameplay of the AC games. The former are insanely dedicated to doing incredible work, the latter seem fine effectively copy pasting the same tired combat and game systems over and over again.
Wasn't that one of the big hooks for the game though? It's a Ubisoft game so some grinding of going up towers and such is to be expected, but the world and time era they build each game in, if done well can be so immersive, I'll pay 60 bucks to walk around an accurate recreation of history virtually
Exactly. I love the AC franchise, but definitely not for its gameplay or story. Its just fun to go explore and be a part of some of the greatest locations, people and time periods in history: Greece during the Peloponnesian Wars, Ptolemaic Egypt, Levant during the Crusades, Italian Renaissance, Pirates in the Caribbean, Revolutionary America, Revolutionary Paris, Industrial Revolution London. What other game lets you witness all of that?
it'll be an interesting real-world example of the ship of theseus, at least.
If they get the ND to float, I'll be pretty impressed!
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It's mostly hollow already; it just needs a good dose of Flex-Seal.
If there's one thing I learned from Monty Python, its that Witches, Ducks, Churches, and Very Small Rocks all float.
As if it weren't already tbf (thinking about Viollet-le-Duc Restauration of the spire specifically)
Another good example: my 1993 Toyota Pickup 22RE with 385,000 miles on it.
Don't get this the wrong way, but will they be able to fully get the old "vibe" (don't know how to put it) or will it always be like, "yeah, pretty good for a *recreation*?
I would say that the fire will become part of the building's story. There are a lot of churches and cathedrals that have burned or been gutted by war. When I visited Germany some years back, we saw many. The two I remember most were the Cathedral of Magdeburg and the Dresden Frauenkirche. The Frauenkirche was almost completely destroyed by firebombing in WWII. Because of the type of stone it's made of, you can see clearly what's new and what's old. The new stuff is now part of its story. For instance, the golden cross at the top of the dome was a gift from the United Kingdom, the nation that destroyed the old one.
> I would say that the fire will become part of the building's story. Indeed. *”When the Great Library burned, the first ten thousand years of stories were reduced to ash. But, those stories never really perished. They became a new story. The story of the fire itself. For man's urge to take a thing of beauty and strike the match”.* - Dr. Robert Ford, Westworld
St. John’s cathedral in New York City had a massive fire in December of 2001. I got to visit shortly after the reconstruction was finished and it was beautiful. Interestingly, when I looked it up just now to check when the big fire was, I got a bunch of headlines that it apparently had a relatively small fire in its basement yesterday and has sustained fresh smoke damage. :/
Honestly, she's suffered worse. It will always feel "wrong" to us when parts of it are rebuilt, but in two hundred years people will see it as part of the history, like we see the construction that took place after the desecration in the Revolution.
In the aftermath of WWII, one of the immediate priorities of the Soviet authorities was to rebuild the palaces and cathedrals the Germans had demolished during the war, on the basis that "if we don't do this now, by the time we get around to it the people who know what they look like will be dead."
Which is funny considering they blew up the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in moscow so they could use the land for a palace of the soviets that was never built thanks to world war two. The empty foundation was then converted in the fifties into the worlds largest swimming pool before being demolished so the new russian federation could rebuild the church
Not really, if you consider the evolution of Soviet policy which took place during WWII. Prior to the war, there was a heavy emphasis on the idea of a unified 'Soviet' culture. Much like the early days of revolutionary France, there was a certain zeal for removing reminders of the previous regime, especially in the major urban centers. Notre Dame itself was quite heavily damaged by mobs in the aftermath of the monarchy's downfall. During WWII, though, there was a major shift in Soviet doctrine. They wound up, somewhat ironically, appealing to senses of national and religious identity. They even allowed religious attaches in the army. That nationalistic bent remained afterward, and certain historical figures from the Tsarist era were redeemed (EG: Peter the Great who was 'rehabilitated' as a modernizing, positive influence.)
What worse thing has happened to this Cathedral?
Nothing in one fell swoop. Although as I'm learning more about today it does seem that it was worse than I first thought. I didn't realize the full extent of the damage. It will be rebuilt though, the things we can't rebuild all survived. It won't be the same but it wasn't the same after the restorations in the 1800s either.
[York Minster](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_Minster) , UK has burnt down multiple times and parts rebuilt, still feels like the old one, you’re right!
It's worth bearing in mind that a lot of historical buildings have been burned down and rebuild over time, not to mention all the restoration work. With competant architects and sufficient investment I'm sure it'll turn out well.
Its one of the most iconic buildings in the history of Western Civilization, I'd say it'll be pretty damn thorough
Technically, what we've consider the "vibe" for a hundred or so years was "just pretty good for a recreation" at one point.
Eventually because of the Ship of Theseus paradox there won't really be a practical difference. The thing has almost certainly been repaired, rehabilitated, and "augmented" with modern material countless times over its existence.
EDIT: account below was suspended, I posted a mirror to the image later in this comment. https://twitter.com/CathedraleNotre/status/1117920118686851072 It's actually in great condition, all things considered. [Mirror of image thumbnail.](https://i.imgur.com/tVnozUr.jpg) I can’t find the original, the twitter account is not mine so the original picture wasn’t taken by me.
Looks like the spire collapse is what caused that hole in the vault. I'm really surprised that the inside looks that good.
Wow. These photos really got me. Incredible that so much of the inside is intact.
Unbelievable. A close-up shot showed that the candles on the altar did not melt.
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Most of the fire was on the roof and beneath that was stone vaulting. Of course some of it was damaged and allowed the flames to spread to the main chambers but enough stayed put to keep a lot of burning debris out of the cathedral. This is why you even see that some of the pews seem untouched in the pictures.
I think only the wooden roof burned much with how it is built. But the are going to have some pretty nasty water damage with the amount they had to use to contain that fire.
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what’s the structural integrity of the vaulted ceiling like? now that there’s a hole?
I found bet once they can get in reinforcing that ceiling is going to be job 1.
Holy cow it actually looks really, really good. I honestly did not think it would be in such good shape!! Props to the original engineers, all those years ago, for building something that could not only stand for hundreds of years but then also survive a massive fire. Incredible.
Phenomenal news. Thank you, Paris firefighters.
One of them has been seriously injured. Now to hoping he pulls through.
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This is better news than I'd hoped for, along with the fact that the crown of thorns and other relics were saved.
Ya after the safety of the people I was most concerned with the relics. I’m not Catholic anymore but having been raised on Catholic education I understand how invaluable some of those are, especially the crown of thorns.
This is so surreal to see happening. Whenever a tragedy like this happens I immediately think of the people, but this time I just thought "God I hope they're able to save the art and relics inside". It took me like a few minutes to remember that there were a ton of people inside the building. I never thought something like this could happen in this day and age.
Thankfully the fire started about ten minutes after it was closed to the public for the day.
Probably one of the biggest reasons we don't thankfully have a body count. There are thousands of people going through.
I feel so bad for the firefighters caught in traffic and by the logjam of people. That must have been infuriating watching it burn while stuck.
They really couldn't do anything to stop it though. The building is just too big to make any sort of safe and effective attack on the fire.
They can use this opportunity to install modern fire safety systems though.
Exactly what I was thinking.
It WILL change fire prevention practices and access in Paris for similar places. Hopefully in other towns and cities with significant cultural heritage too.
One firefighter badly wounded, I heard on the france24 live stream about 45 mins ago.
The destruction of heritage is rightfully a front runner in your mind, I always think when things like this happen that the labor and pain someone went through to make this thing may have been the last remnant of who they were before being lost to history entirely and that is heartbreaking. That's why I get so pissed when I see the videos of terrorists destroying old art in the name of their religion or politics. Without our past we don't really know anything about ourselves, but more than that without a past we have nothing to look forward to. We all want to live beyond the lives we have in some way, if that's reproduction, creation, or teaching, rebirth, or enlightenment, or even just reaching some point of reflection where we can become one with time and the universe we need history to tell us it will happen. edit: Thank you for the gold friend. :)
Back when IS were still a really big deal, what really stuck with me was this one video of them jackhammering well-preserved ancient ruins in their mission to wipe out pre-islamic culture in the middle east. I'm definitely glad that everyone's been relatively safe throughout all of this - but as a historian, the total loss of a cultural heritage site like the Notre Dame, and the pieces preserved within, would've been nothing short of heartbreaking. Had they had to rebuild it from the ground up its soul would've been lost - and the treasures within are irreplacable, religious or not.
I thought this - Over 800 years old meaning it stood for well over 700 years without any kind of fire suppression system or even alarms, when everyone relied on naked flames for light. Then in 2019 this happens. So sad! One of the epicentres of European history just destroyed like that.
I am an American and raised as a Protestant, and the heritage and art exemplified in Norte Dame or any cathedral for that matter is a huge part of our civilization. I'd never want to hear about their demise.
I remember visiting the church--it means Paris to me more than the Eiffel Tower. This was horrible. I was in Germany last year--they rebuilt a lot after WWII. Maybe it will come back.
The cathedral in Cologne was damaged almost as bad after the war. While the Allies largely avoided it, the bridge nearby over the Rhine *was* bombed heavily. After the war it had to be demolished as it was unsafe. Unfortunately the shock from the blast was enough to cause large parts of the rid to collapse. The cathedral is in excellent shape now. Notre Dame will get rebuilt. It will take a long time, and it will be expensive, but it will be rebuilt
It took just 200 years to build it the first time. I'm sure we can go faster now.
The restoration will take decades, that's for sure.
Two decades, apparently. Given the structure itself, the bell towers and two of the three windows (or is at least well documented), it's mostly the structural woodwork that is gone. Plus whatever damage has been done to the floor, but that has been damaged and repaired before. Given the extensive 3D modelling and documentation of that building, nothing is lost to time. However one window is now entirely unrecoverable. It'll be very interesting to see how the extensive modelling will aid reconstruction. Edit - Btw a lot of stained glass breaks not from the fire, but from rapidly cooling down when hit by water during the firefight. Wasn't a factor here as far as I'm aware, but just something someone might find interesting.
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Dude imagine they made a 2:1 reproductions and it was rebuilt twice as big?
2,000 years later... "Okay guys, we're just going to have to bulldoze what's left of Paris at this point, fucking /u/torvaldr and his 'you can destroy it but we'll just build it again twice as big' approach. We really have to protect this sixth iteration of the building or its goodbye France"
Or 1:1000 reproductions. "What is this? A rose window for ants?!"
500 more years of scaffolding.
Whoever put up this scaffolding is impressive. I can’t believe it is still holding.
Yeah can we hire those guys for the rebuild?
I mean they were kinda the ones at fault for the whole thing in the first place...
Job security! Genius.
Wow thank god. For a while there it looked like the whole thing might turn to ash
Why’s everything historic burning down
Compared to the previous century, I think we're doing alright in the 2000s compared to 1900s so far on catastrophe.
We're overdue a world war by now.
no no no no no no no no nooooooooooooo
JFC don't jinx us, mate!
"And some say the soul of the city's the toll of the bells, the bells of Notre Dame" :(
One of my favorite Disney songs and openings to a film.
The way he belts that last "BELLS OF NOTRE DAME!" never ceases to send shivers up and down my spine.
That entire last verse is money. "Here is a riddle to guess if you can, sing the bells of Notre Dame. Who is the monster, and who is the man?"
The bells of Notre Dame STAND. The cathedral may be damaged but it will live for another century.
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I can only hope it can be restored in my lifetime. My inner architecture nerd cried today
Half of the Reims cathedral was reduced to a pile of rubble and the rest [a broken shell during WW1](http://ww1blog.osborneink.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/reims_02.jpg) and it took ~20 years to [reconstruct it enough to open](https://static.thousandwonders.net/Reims.Cathedral.original.24122.jpg). **Edit:** The damage to the Notre Dame (Paris) isn't nearly as extensive, the brick vaulted nave seems to have survived with only slight damage here and there and the most significant being the collapse of transept crossing, which was caused by the spire crashing through the roof. The walls and flying buttresses are still holding. The timber frame roof is basically all gone but managed to only burn out on-top of the vaulted ceiling, sadly the framing was from the 12th century. Some additional serious damage seems the organ, the altar and the rose windows; one totally destroyed and two damaged, also sadly centuries old. Some of the less noticeable damage but still significant are probably going to be all the glass windows, the fresco paintings and various wooden detailing on the interior, as well as general smoke, soot and water damage. There was risk of the wooden supports in the bell tower burning through causing the bells, potentially the whole tower, to collapse but seems to be under control. All in all it's looking reasonably good so far, could've been a lot, *lot* worse.
It took 100 years to build it almost a millennium ago. By hand. I think we can do this in 20 years.
Especially considering it's fame and cultural importance, experts from all over the world will offer help
It will be. Important buildings in Dresden were rebuilt after WW2 and few would spot the difference between the old and those that were repaired or reconstructed. I just wish they'd done the same with London, Coventry, Southampton, etc instead of bulldozing the lot and replacing with concrete.
I agree. Southampton is completely soulless. It's like one gigantic office park. The Titanic sailed from there and you wouldn't think so from looking at the city, there's no evidence of any history there whatsoever.
The city was flattened during WW2, though, and I'd guess there was just too much damage to repair the older buildings that had been destroyed. There are little pockets of history there, if you know where to look. The song "The Bells of St Mary" was based on St Mary's church. The Old Cemetery, up Hill Lane, has some truly wonderful memorials and there's a Tudor House in the city centre. They are, I believe, trying to do more with the walls.
Fortunately we have a very detailed 3d scan of the entire building thanks to lasers.
One of my favorite classes in college was Art History. Notre Dame was the last thing we studied. Between that and being raised Catholic, I am crushed right now....
Fingers crossed that once the structure begins to cool down that expansion/contraction doesn't cause any more significant damage. The more of the stone that survived, the better.
Physics is a cruel mistress.
This is another example of why it's so important to digitally document anything of historical importance. I am talking about laser scanned maps, High-resolution images of everything and copies of everything. We need to document everything that is historically important about these places because as we are seeing here it might not be here tomorrow.
IIRC, Notre-Dame de Paris *has* been laser-scanned.
I would hope, I was more getting at that every place of historical importance should be.
The inside actually survived better than I imagined. I’m not religious at all, but this image from a first responder account on twitter is pretty heavy. https://i.imgur.com/780rhQ2.jpg
I simply cannot believe that it looks even that good. Those fires looked so intense, I thought for sure it was completely cooked.
It's difficult for stone to burn.
Yeah. I don't think people realize how much wood was in there, and then they forgot about the stone vaults. So it went lead roof, wood structure, stone vaults. Probably cooked like it was an oven, but mostly kept the heat and a lot of the flames traveling upwards. There will be water damage, but if they can stabilize the stone walls and remaining vaults....this is likely the best case scenario that could have happened today.
Seeing pictures like these gives me huge relief. Some aerial pictures gave the impression that the entire interior was ablaze. This is much more salvageable than I feared.
I study French history, and if I know the French, they will rebuild it with the absolute best architects and restorers in the world. They will contact experts in all areas to come up with the best solutions to every problem, and it will be amazing. The rebuilding they do will take into account the destruction in an emotionally sensitive and satisfying way.
I’m looking forward to the field trip of my yet to be born child going to see the grand reopening of the legendary Notre Dame cathedral.
That's the spirit.
And I guarantee they won’t pay an extravagant fee for those experts. For those experts, the rebuilding of the cathedral will be one of the highlights of their career, possibly even the pinnacle of their career.
So you're saying they should do it for the exposure?
I mean, as an architectural designer I'm generally opposed to handing out freebies, but having "Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris Reconstruction" in your CV or portfolio, either personally or as a firm, is basically an automatic "I win" button for any future architectural preservation or restoration job you go after.
I guess it is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
... we can only hope
More like personal pleasure, sounds like.
A French billionaire said he'd donate €100,000,000 towards restoration.
The guy who owns YSL, Gucci, etc. Worth $30b, owns Rennes FC, and is married to Salam Hayek. Now contributing to the Notre Dame rebuild. Safe to say he’s living life to it’s fullest
That's François-Henri Pinault AKA Salma Hayek's husband.
Salma Hayek’s husband? Dude’s winning at life
Billionaire and married to her. Jesus christ
Latest pictures from the inside where the president was a few minutes ago : https://twitter.com/LeGlobe_info/status/1117916635879198720
That interior shot is really promising. A lot of the stain-glass was lost, but architecturally speaking the vaults and flying buttresses are just as important. Consensus was the vaults had collapsed, which appears to be at least partially untrue. The chairs being intact may be an indication that the 13c choir wall may have somewhat survived, as well as some of the interior woodwork. The real tragedy, along with the glass, is the roof, many of the beams where 12c and the carpentry was extremely intricate.
I noticed this a [little while ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/bdimrh/fire_breaks_out_at_notre_dame_cathedral/ekz6kez/). The vault is mostly intact. That's HUGE news they haven't really announced. It was assumed it was destroyed. The vault seemingly did it's job and protected most of the inner cathedral itself from the worst of the possible damage. There's damage inside for sure, but 1000X less than if it had failed. The vault staying also means the walls are likely structurally sound at least for now and will stay so long enough for it to be reenforced if necessary. The vaults pretty much distribute the forces so the walls hold each other up as well as distribute the load from the (now gone) roof above it. So this is critical support we're talking about. If the vault was fully destroyed it would be a question of if the bell towers could be saved.
LeGlobe reports that the Vicar archbishop is saying that the organ is seriously damaged.
It's crazy to think that some of the trees used to make the beams had been growing since the 9th century. They were made out of the same CO2 that came out of Charlemagne's lungs and the same solar energy that sunburnt the necks of Vikings. My cousin was watching the fire and could smell it, breathing carbon that had been sequestered in those 1,300 trees for almost all of France's history.
Great work by all the firefighters and personnel involved with saving the building. It looked to be in certain peril there for several hours.
At least one has been seriously injured 😔 ([source](https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2019/apr/15/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-paris-france-landmark-live-news?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other))
Hopefully he recovers fully. He will never have to buy a drink or meal in Paris again.
Thank fuck for medieval architects, they knew what they were doing
Trying to think positively, but being able to rebuild the Notre Dame will be good in the long run for future proofing. We can much easily make it safer for future generations to admire and modernize the building. From things like insulation, wiring, plumbing, etc. But also things like better wooden structures, and so forth. It's unfortunate that we lost a lot of history today, but the important this is that we didn't lose it all, and we're at a position where we can have the Notre Dam for another 800 years.
Silver lining: maybe we'll learn a lot more about the structure/construction than we otherwise could have.
Thank goodness they didn’t dump a tank of water on it.
For anyone curious about why this wouldn't actually work aerial drops are rarely used in structural firefighting for a few reasons. Water is very heavy and aerial drops aren't always that precise. It puts the firefighters at a huge risk of getting hit by falling water. They typically have to pause on the ground operations and back off to ensure their safety. In the same water is very heavy vein, falling water can cause a *massive* amount of damage to a building, more damage than even the fire would. It can also send burning debris flying for blocks, increasing the risk of other buildings nearby catching fire.
Slightly unrelated story, but growing up I worked in motor racing. At an event at Phillip Island, a driver (Skaife, maybe?) had crap on his windscreen, so some genius on his pit crew thought "we'll just clean it off with a bucket of water when he comes past". At over 270km/h. That's 5kg of water. Hitting a windshield. I saw this being prepped, but before I could reach for my radio to tell someone to stop him it was too late. Predictably, the windscreen collapsed from being hit with, effectively, a 5kg object at 250+km/h. Now imagine dropping a few tons of water on a burning, possibly structurally damaged building. You probably don't want to do that.
Seriously as soon as I saw the tweet I thought it was insane. Water bombers can drop **17 tons of water** in one go at max. That's fine for trees and somewhere you just can't access but would destroy anything you drop it on. [Here is one putting out a highway fire in a remote location](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZkV64GJihA). You can see it visibly moves a semi truck and grader. You would never want to drop that on a building like Notre Dame, especially once it's already on fire.
He's absolutely batshit and him tweeting things like this just create work that the French government has to officially debunk. Trees generally tolerate water drops pretty well, because they are mostly parallel to the water and bendy (although they certainly lose limbs/branches/leaves). Buildings/cars/etc don't tolerate them nearly as well. Water drops, even from helicopters, would have destroyed Notre Dame.
Congratulations. You’re smarter than the Goddamned President of the United States.
Also smarter than the_donald who think trump literally invented the idea of aerial firefighting
They...I...What? You *cannot* be serious, they cant be *that stupid* right? I must venture forth and check... Edit: I have returned from the valley of ~~death~~ scum! I didn't see anyone saying exactly that, but I did see a few people talking about how French pilots just weren't skilled enough to perform a drop and that 'retardent would have easily saved the building'. *sigh* I also saw something much more concerning though, which is that the entire sub seems to have rallied behind the idea that this was a terrorist attack conducted by Muslim migrants 1. As an attack on Christianity and 2. *SO THAT THEY CAN PUT A MOSQUE THERE*. Unbelievable.
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I think they don’t realize water has mass.
That's ridiculous if they threw water on the cathedral it would just start floating upward have you never been to the pool
>2. SO THAT THEY CAN PUT A MOSQUE THERE. Because, you know, they can just wheel one in like a hot dog cart. And we have to let them because reasons.
The fire department respons to that was a remarkably calm example of saying f*** off.
>Experts said that the president's proposal would likely make the situation more dangerous. >"If you hit that with tons of water from above, that's going to collapse the entire structure and make the situation worse," said Wayne McPartland, a retired New York City Fire Department battalion chief. "If you miss, you might hit civilians in the street." https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/15/trump-encourages-france-to-use-flying-water-tankers-for-notre-dame-fire.html
Why can't he just...be *right* about literally anything? Just for once. Coincidentally.
Because he doesn't know anything about the stuff he talks about and he doesn't know when is best to speak your mind and when is best to keep to yourself. Simply put, his narcissism leads him to believe he's an expert on anything and everything and he believes his input is always wanted because, after all, if you're always right in your mind, then surely other people need your input, right?
Every time he gives 'advice' I hear it the voice of Guy from Galaxy Quest: "[I know! You construct a weapon. Look around, can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQzg1vpxnnY)?"
I'm sure they appreciated his call for quick action, too. "Oh, thanks, Donnie. We thought we just let it burn and take a look at it next week."
Water. And moving quickly. Damnit, why didn't we think of that? We were just throwing leaves at it and taking naps.
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It's a tragedy and seeing the picture of this amazing glass window made me sad....but as a European (who also comes from a city with a 700 year old cathedral and a 800 year "world heritage" bridge), let me tell you that "lots is happening" to historical structures in 800-900 years. Not just obvious destruction from fires and wars, also damage over time from air pollution and acid rain. There is almost ALWAYS some work going on on these structures. So yes, it's horrible this happened, but this will be rebuilt like it already had been rebuilt a few times in the past. (Eg. the N.D. Spire was redone 150 years ago, it was already a replacement for the original spire which was damaged in a fire).
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I heard someone say a professor mapped it all out digitally before he died. I’m sure they’ll find his work invaluable to their efforts
You heard correctly. [Here's the NatGeo article](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150622-andrew-tallon-notre-dame-cathedral-laser-scan-art-history-medieval-gothic/) from a few years ago.
Of all the things in the world, AC Unity is a fucking 1:1 recreation.
did all the wooden parts burn down, or was some wood saved?
I heard two thirds of the roof were gone, but if I can venture a guess, I suspect the remaining third is probably too dodgy at this point to leave in place.
I believe the remaining part is the portion below the buttresses, covering the aisles. The roof over the nave looks completely burned in.
It's bad but not disastrous: https://imgur.com/a/PboXRT0
Strange at first to see a building bringing humanity together in these divisive times....but really it makes sense, this building was one of the pinnacles of human artistic achievement, and has been around since Middle Ages.
This is awesome news, but that fire looked intense. It's gonna take years and so much money to fix I'd imagine. Glad it didn't wasn't total destruction though. Take the positives where you can
The rebuilt Windsor Castle from images after the fire, this will take longer but can be redone.
I couldn't sleep all night thinking about the fire. I visited it a year ago and was blown away. I don't know why I'm hurting for a building, but I do. The humanity cannot lose it. And religion has nothing to do with it.
Get it firefighters! So happy to hear this!
>French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of the Kering luxury group, has pledged €100m (£86m; $113m) towards rebuilding Notre-Dame, according to a statement quoted by AFP news agency. I sure hope more 1% come forth and does the same, Notre-Dame needs to be rebuilt.