Notre Dame Cathedral is burning
- Thread starter Dennisch
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Wasn't there some fuss about this a couple of years ago? I recall that the cathedral needed repairs, but nobody could agree on who should pay for it, as the French government owns the building but allows the Church to lease it for free and pay for the upkeep... or something.
Of course it's a nightmare to search for that right now...
Of course it's a nightmare to search for that right now...
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- TenEightyOne
- TenEightyOne
Yes. The renovation bill was massive, not sure how much but a transitional Early English church I'm working with in East Yorkshire has a bill of £10m for just stonework and roof repairs. I guess Notre Dame must be easily around £100m. I'm not sure who got the job in the end or who paid... but they've got a much bigger bill now.
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This is from the entrance.
Apparently the part under the stone arch structure has been less affected than i feared (the four roofs collapsed ON the stone structure).
Testament to the strength of the groin vault and to 12th century French engineering! Seeing the cross still standing does look rather miraculous.
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They were a consensus about who would have to pay : "not me".
A french billionaire, François-Henri Pinault , said tonight that he pledged 100 millions € to the reconstruction.
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- TenEightyOne
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Just reading that the Crown of Thorns and the tunic of Saint Louis were saved. They're an important part of Danny Dyer's faaahmly'istry. And priceless artefacts in their own right, of course.
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Just found this, cost of restauration stages for the following 10 years.
Obviously they can now just throw that budget plan in fire.
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This is from the entrance.
Apparently the part under the stone arch structure has been less affected than i feared (the four roofs collapsed ON the stone structure).
Amazing photo. This is what I was hoping for: that the stone structure would be relatively unaffected, but looking at the footage of the burning building it was hard to imagine. Even the pews in the nave seem undamaged. I wonder if that goes for the wood in the nave?
One of the reasons for building churches of stone - & the incredible feats of engineering innovation that that involved - was to prevent them from regularly burning down (which happened a lot with wood buildings in the Middle Ages). The roof & the spire (which was 19th neo-Gothic rather than actually Gothic) should be relatively easy to replace ... assuming the underlying structure has not been too badly damaged.
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I saw this on television last night and couldn't believe what I was seeing.
What and how did it happen? Was it arson, an accident?
The fire has been put out. French billionaires are going to raise millions of € to restore the Notre Dame.
Strange that these billionaires are willing to pay millions for the restoration of this catherdral and not for all the sick, hungry people in need of help in the world or to save the climate.
What and how did it happen? Was it arson, an accident?
The fire has been put out. French billionaires are going to raise millions of € to restore the Notre Dame.
Strange that these billionaires are willing to pay millions for the restoration of this catherdral and not for all the sick, hungry people in need of help in the world or to save the climate.
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I didn't realise - or rather appreciate - until earlier that it's only 850 years old (well, originally - the arrow was a 150-year old replica as the original fell down too). Modern buildings... they just don't make them like they used to.
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- TenEightyOne
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15 minutes ago the burning was on the news. I wasn't watching but heard the interviews and what I have to say is not going to be accepted by many people but the way people are reacting to the burning of the Notre Dame is so unbelievably pathetic that I had to close the door so I wouldn't hear it the interview and coverage anymore.
It is part of the French culture, it is a building of religion, faith and what not. Many Christians in the world find religious/psychological support and they need a place like that for guidance and so on. I get that and I know it is important for many people but come one, it is a building, a cathedral nothing more.
The way it was brought on the news, how the people react was like a world wide catastrophe happened. Like it was the end of the world, like the worst thing ever has happened. Humans have their priorities completely wrong.
Sorry for the rant but this got on my nerves so badly that I literally stopped listening to the news while I was doing other stuff.
It is part of the French culture, it is a building of religion, faith and what not. Many Christians in the world find religious/psychological support and they need a place like that for guidance and so on. I get that and I know it is important for many people but come one, it is a building, a cathedral nothing more.
The way it was brought on the news, how the people react was like a world wide catastrophe happened. Like it was the end of the world, like the worst thing ever has happened. Humans have their priorities completely wrong.
Sorry for the rant but this got on my nerves so badly that I literally stopped listening to the news while I was doing other stuff.
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Stranger still that they weren't willing to spend a dime to restore the Cathedral before.
What do you expect? Our brain hasn't evolved from the "nomadic tribe of 50 people" stage. We only care about what's close to us. And we usually define "close" as "sharing the same language" (or rather, the same logos).
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- TenEightyOne
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Fine, that's your view. I pointed out earlier in this thread that I'm an atheist... so I can hardly pretend that the building has any religious value for me. However, quantifying significance through "sense of place" is much more difficult, and it's evident that the building and its presence in eye and mind is enormously important to many people from all walks of life. Humans have always venerated symbols in one sense or another. I feel that the collective sadness at the damage to Notre Dame de Paris is illustrating that weird phenomenon very well indeed.
Heritage is most important to us when we perceive a genuine threat. Proven fact
Precisely.
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Agreed with @TenEightyOne , even if unlike him I am a catholic. But I will clarify that my feel for this Cathedral has litle to do with its religious significance, I tend to avoid large and costly temples with their high dignitaries and rather prefer the humble parish church with the priest that nobody ever heard of (and never will except the people living in the neighborhood).
But I do feel loss from this destructive event. Because the Notre Dame is one of the symbols of the continent, of the cultural background and of the history that I feel as my own. It belongs to my heritage as an European, just as much as - for example - the Stonehenge . Whatever religious significance those rocks might have when erected is obviously something I don't care, but I would feel a loss if for some reason that one was also destroyed. Same with the Partenon, with the Coliseum and even with the Holy Sepulchre or the holy Wall in Jerusalem, regardless of religious meanings
(I know, I know, Jerusalém isn't in Europe, but the European heritage comes mainly from the mix of Roman, Greek and Hebrew cultures)
Of course I relate even more deeply to Portuguese landmarks and our own significant buildings of old. But I felt moved, personally, by the parcial destruction of the Notre Dame. BEcause I relate to it, as I poorly tried to explain.
But I do feel loss from this destructive event. Because the Notre Dame is one of the symbols of the continent, of the cultural background and of the history that I feel as my own. It belongs to my heritage as an European, just as much as - for example - the Stonehenge . Whatever religious significance those rocks might have when erected is obviously something I don't care, but I would feel a loss if for some reason that one was also destroyed. Same with the Partenon, with the Coliseum and even with the Holy Sepulchre or the holy Wall in Jerusalem, regardless of religious meanings
(I know, I know, Jerusalém isn't in Europe, but the European heritage comes mainly from the mix of Roman, Greek and Hebrew cultures)
Of course I relate even more deeply to Portuguese landmarks and our own significant buildings of old. But I felt moved, personally, by the parcial destruction of the Notre Dame. BEcause I relate to it, as I poorly tried to explain.
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To be honest it sounds like the problem lies with you rather than them.
Every nation has a building, monument, piece of art or other item that means nothing to others that is somehow imprinted on that nations psyche. And Notre-Dame is one of those buildings for France. For example, the distance to every point in France is measured from there. It's literally Km 0 for the nation.
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No it's not. For someone to donate to a cause, especially huge Scrooge McDuck piles of money, it usually has to be something they actually care about. Starving babies in Africa is usually pretty far down that list for any people living in developed nations, "it's just a building" or not.
It is somewhat amusing that no one wanted to front the money before when it was just being renovated for a fraction of the cost, but then it wasn't splashed across the news for 24 hours for going up in flames as a huge disaster at that point. If the Statue of Liberty fell over, I can guarantee even the most government-hating, tax shelter-using, hunts-poor-people-for-sport scumbag rich people would line up to help pay for repairing it in America just the same as tons of money is being funneled into fixing Notre Dame now.
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