Quicksand Fans

For those who may not have heard yet there has been a major fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The "spire" has collapsed and I saw one report that the roof had also caved in.

Absolutely horrifying to watch. Not only is the building itself a national treasure but it's also home to so many priceless/irreplaceable works of art.

The roof is wood but the rest of the building is heavy structural stone, so all might not be lost.

Mynock wrote:Absolutely horrifying to watch. Not only is the building itself a national treasure but it's also home to so many priceless/irreplaceable works of art.

The roof is wood but the rest of the building is heavy structural stone, so all might not be lost.

All not lost, true. But the best and most irreplaceable was taken away forever, including the famous steeple undergoing a 7 million dollar restoration, and all the treasures inside. Just terrible.







https://www.google.com/search?q=Notre+D ... 25#imgrc=_

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This will be an amazing restoration if it's done properly. The cost will run billions to be sure but the decision making even before it begins will determine how much. Do you restore it as it was originally built? Go back with concrete and steel? Where do you find enough people who know how to do this kind of work? Is there even enough old oak in Europe that can be cut to do this? What do you cover all of this with to keep the rain out? How do you deal with modern utilities and fire suppression that surely will be part of it? What about restoring all the small details and the art? Where do you put some really bigass construction cranes for this? It's not like you've got original CAD drawings to work from either. There's going to be a lot of work even before anything even begins.

I've learned that many of the famous artifacts inside were saved. The church will return.


Interior photos released today, and it's almost a miracle. Apparently there is a stone ceiling under the wood roof that kept most of the fire confined to the top. Also, many rare statues were removed fro the roof for renovations, so that survives too.

The cross bears witness: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/first-p ... 33378.html

Don't know if people are aware of this, but Victor Hugo wrote "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame" because the cathedral was is desperate need of renovation in the 19th century, and he wanted to put the building back into the public's consciousness. It worked.

I'd say this is more than "almost a miracle"...

After that fire, it could take years to restore Notre Dame to its former glory.

Mynock wrote:Absolutely horrifying to watch. Not only is the building itself a national treasure but it's also home to so many priceless/irreplaceable works of art.

As an artist, I find the idea of the loss of the art as horrifying as I find the damage to the cathedral.

I'm glad at least some of it was rescued.

Nessie

I've been reading up on the history of the structure (knew of it but really nothing about it before the current events) and it basically reads like "so and so burned it down, then so and so rebuilt it, then so and so let it fall into disrepair, then so and so restored it".

The roof (much of which was relatively new) is gone but the stone "core", the bell towers, the flying buttresses and those beautiful stained glass windows all seemed to have weathered the current catastrophe intact, which is AWESOME! The rest will get rebuilt like it has many times before, with a nod to the past but also incorporating more modern materials/construction.

Also gotta give a nod to those firefighters that ran inside, not knowing if a blazing roof was about to drop down on their heads, and saved many of the irreplaceable artifacts/reliquaries/etc inside. Medals are in order for every one of them.