PG was so sad to see video of this lovely building burning last night.
Construction on the cathedral was begun over 800 years ago on the site of even more ancient churches. Notre Dame survived the French Revolution and two World Wars.
PG was heartened read this morning that over $300 million in private funds have already been pledged towards rebuilding and restoration.
A useful guide to the architecture and what burned: https://www.facebook.com/karen.myers/posts/10156346304502817
A surprising (to me) amount of the cathedral is not original or had been significantly restored before. This includes bells (some were melted for cannon balls during the French Revolution) and the rose windows: some replaced hundreds of years ago, or rebuilt (again, after the French Revolution). Even the dramatic spire which collapsed was a 19th c. enhancement.
Thanks for posting this – the sight of it made me cry last night and I’ve been keeping up with developments all day. It’s heartening to see how much has survived because at one point it looked as though everything might be lost. Brave firemen.
What did the Cathedral de la Notre Dame de Paris know about Hillary Clinton?
The guys who built it started work knowing they would never live to see it finished. I suspect we will see the same with this repair job. Macron says five years…
Good news, bad news:
Massive donations to repair the damage look to fund all of the costs, and more.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/billionaires-raced-to-pledge-money-to-rebuild-notre-dame-then-came-the-backlash/2019/04/18/7133f9a2-617c-11e9-bf24-db4b9fb62aa2_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3326ada17215&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Bad news: politicians are already angling to put their stamp (and name) on the landmark:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/notre-dame-fire-updates/2019/04/17/00dbbd84-6091-11e9-bf24-db4b9fb62aa2_story.html?utm_term=.d97ea705325d
Worse news:
The weekly populist rioters are now using the donations as an excuse.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/paris-police-use-tear-gas-against-yellow-vest-protesters/ar-BBW81oL
Populist statism on the march all over.
(If the WP nags, open the link in private mode.)