Notre Dame Cathedral

!!!! At least they saved more than expected, just a fantastic building with stunning stained glass, especially the rose windows.

Aye, that's a bit of relief there that they didn't lost the entire structure. It will be restored, I'm sure!!

Being an art and architecture historian I have always sort of looked a little askance at the notre dame in the same way I might at the mona lisa because they are not the seminal works they are made out to be
And now when it´s burning I found that I don´t really care about that it strikes me in the heart and even though I don´t care for standing in the lines to go in I have never missed enjoying the exterior whenever I´m in paris

I didn´t know I loved it until it was to late

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Aye, that's a bit of relief there that they didn't lost the entire structure. It will be restored, I'm sure!!

I sure hope so. Build it to make another 800 years of history!

At first I thought it was the place where that world famous artist painted the ceiling, and that would have been tragic. But then I found out it is a cathedral, famous for architecture but not for artwork on the ceiling. I mean, I knew Notre Dame was a college football team, but didn't really know about it, besides that. (I know I know - I'm a typical dumb insular and only focused on my country American ) Anyway, hopefully they will find out if it was arson and get the person or persons responsible if it was deliberate.

If it was an accident, that is a shame. I don't know if they can rebuild it as well as the people who were master craftsman and such back when it was built.

It will be okay

The fact that the building was saved more than they thought and nobody was hurt in the process of putting out the fire is amazing and I'm really happy to know that.

Yes, hopefully this will be reparable. Many great cathedrals have been badly fire damaged, and survived. I like visiting cathedrals and castles and such, and it's very common to hear, for example, that it's all the original structure expect for the west tower, which was destroyed in the fire. Hopefully it will be restored to its full glory.

Originally Posted by Silver
It will be okay

Well, the first pictures from the inside do show that parts of the vaulted ceiling have indeed collapsed, which is likely to be a major concern as they go about securing what is left. But still, it could have been much worse. Had the bells (which rest on wooden beams as well) fallen, they would probably have torn down the towers as well. Not to mention the risk of injury and death to the firecrews as well as the crowds that were still inside when it started…

And yet it is strange to think that those oak beams that have been in place over Paris for eight hundred years are gone. Structures such as Notre Dame were there long before we were born and are supposed to still be here long after we are gone, and remind us, independently of religious affiliation, that our lives are tied into a greater narrative.

This architectural marvel is pretty much impossible to build today the same way as noone knows how it was made without armored concrete. In other words, this cathedral is impossible to exist yet it does.
Early plans of restoration what's lost are of course based on armed concrete. The problem? Noone can know if it'll shake the overall static.

Nothing can stand the test of time of course, but there is something else to note. Ingenious builders of this structure of which some never saw it finished (it took almost 200 years to complete it) knew about wooden logs fire risks and while parts of the cathedral are now destroyed the overall structure is still intact.

This building is a prime example of what's humanity capable of when not wasting lives on stupid wars and news about mass murderers. It survived two world wars, here's hope it won't be lost in the third one.

Probably nothing more than idle speculation, but it would be cool nevertheless: Assassin’s Creed Unity could help rebuild Notre Dame.

On a side note ancient construction methods are interesting to read about. I just finished a tv and book series about Roman architecture. It was fascinating.

The fun part was watching engineers figure it out with modern systems.

The architects of these cathedrals went unnamed because they wanted to give glory to God. This is also true of their famous gargoyles - one artist was commissioned all over Europe.

One expert claims it could take 20-40 years to fully repair the church.

Link - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/notre-d…take-40-years/

There has been at least one major study on how one of the great cathedrals was built that may be of interest. The book is called "The Master Masons of Chatres" by John James.

Macron says it will take five, which sounds crazy, but it depends on how many people are working on it at the same time. Plus they aren't even close to evaluating all the damage yet.

5 is highly optimistic. Regardless of people and money invested, I don't think it can be done is such short time. 20-40 as @Couchpotato suggested above is more probable.

Five years is way too optimistic, even if they closed the access to it and got a maximum amount of experts working on it. It's something to say for people to stay optimistic. About 20 years sounds about right if nothing goes wrong.

I think it's possible. York Minster was burnt out in 1984, and reopened in 1988. I believe the damage in Paris is worse, and my guess would be 5 - 10 years. Apparently one of the factors that slows down these projects is that there are a limited number of people in the world with the proper skills and experience. But I think France will pull out all the stops for this one.