Notre-Dame cathedral Paris is on fire

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I would hazard a guess that the French are not that unique in this regard. I would not be surprised if official “ownership” of churches in several countries is the state. Mexico certainly comes to mind. Perhaps some of the former Warsaw block countries, even Poland would not be a surprise. Germany? Probably not.
 
www.vaticannews.va

Notre Dame fire: Pope Francis expresses closeness, assures prayers - Vatican News

Pope Francis is praying for the Catholics of France, as well as for the people of Paris and all those striving to cope with the fire that ravaged the ...
www.vaticannews.va www.vaticannews.va

www.vaticannews.va

Notre Dame fire: Pope joins Paris in sorrow, Vatican offers technical expertise - Vatican News

Pope Francis expresses his sorrow to the Archbishop of Paris, and the people of France, for the fire that devastated Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral, as ...
www.vaticannews.va www.vaticannews.va
 
Guess I just never really thought about that. Learn something new everyday.
 
To be perfectly frank, I think Notre Dame, while in any legal terms, is the property of the French state, this is a building of the utmost importance to European civilization. It is the grandest example of the Gothic style, and icon of Western Christian architecture. I would have no problem with my government offering assistance to France in its rebuilding. Some things are more important than money, and this great achievement of Medieval building and faith is just such an object.
 
Vive notre Dame, reine de France! Vive la France, fille aînée de l’Eglise!

I, from a French Catholic line, am distraught and in tears from this horrible fire. We shall rebuild!
 
tafan2 said:
So true, although we like to think of the Europeans as very liberal politically, they often don’t get caught up in much of the silliness we Americans do.
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Europeans are well supplied with sillinesses of their own. They don’t need to borrow other people’s.
 
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Sky News in the UK had an encouraging video story about York Minster, which had a fire back in 1984.

It is a smaller church than Notre Dame, but as big as most city cathedrals, and it also has a wooden roof that burned. One guy ended up rebuilding almost the whole thing, making new oak beams by hand. He said it was bound to look impossible at first, but that it could be done if you just did each piece as it came.
 
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One of the interesting articles I read is that there had been a laser-generated map of the cathedral’s interior done a while back, and this may be invaluable in putting Notre-Dame back together

This digital scan of Notre Dame offers hope for its restoration after the fire

The devastating blaze at the 850-year-old cathedral in Paris is now under control. The fact that its interior and exterior have been digitally 3D-mapped means the iconic building could be restored to its former glory. The scans: An exact digital replica of the building was captured by a (now...
www.technologyreview.com www.technologyreview.com
 
Mintaka said:
Sky News in the UK had an encouraging video story about York Minster, which had a fire back in 1984.

It is a smaller church than Notre Dame, but as big as most city cathedrals, and it also has a wooden roof that burned. One guy ended up rebuilding almost the whole thing, making new oak beams by hand. He said it was bound to look impossible at first, but that it could be done if you just did each piece as it came.
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We visited the Minster in November 1987. You couldn’t tell that there had been a fire there.

D
 
The confusing part about the news reports is that they didn’t quite understand that the only framework in the building supported the outer roof.

Most of the building is stone, and the " entire framework" sat over the stone vaulted ceiling. Thus most of the interior was protected by the stone ceiling from the flames.
 
I was a bit baffled by them constantly saying “The whole wooden frame of the building is on fire” and “The whole wooden interior is on fire” when the pictures of the Cathedral interior very clearly show an interior that is almost entirely made of stone. The only wooden parts visible were portable wooden chairs. Notre Dame doesn’t even have a lot of interior ornamentation like many European cathedrals do. I understand that at the time of the French Revolution, most of the tombs and art and stuff that one normally finds in a cathedral was plundered and was never put back into the space, so it is just a big, bare, mostly empty stone space. The only “wooden interior” was above the vaulted ceiling in the roof.
 
With the fire, the XIII th century woods are lost…:cry:

Yet fires of buildings, including churches were common for century, in the middle age…

(hope to not offend anyone…
My 2 years old daughter is A big fan of notre dame de Paris. When she watches the fire on the tv, she took her book, to see us, the fire on it…
Symbolical fire, but for her, it is a true one, and it is very natural…)

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Tis_Bearself said:
I was a bit baffled by them constantly saying “The whole wooden frame of the building is on fire” and “The whole wooden interior is on fire” when the pictures of the Cathedral interior very clearly show an interior that is almost entirely made of stone. The only wooden parts visible were portable wooden chairs. Notre Dame doesn’t even have a lot of interior ornamentation like many European cathedrals do. I understand that at the time of the French Revolution, most of the tombs and art and stuff that one normally finds in a cathedral was plundered and was never put back into the space, so it is just a big, bare, mostly empty stone space. The only “wooden interior” was above the vaulted ceiling in the roof.
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I heard there were 13,000 trees used in the upper area…they have a special name for the labyrinth of timber work that supported the vaulted ceiling…nicknamed “The Forest”.

http://www.notredamedeparis.fr/en/la-cathedrale/architecture/la-charpente/

 
Here is a diagram of Notre Dame that is going around. The “wood frame interior” was the roof parts, only. (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

I understand there was also wood framing in the upper part of the towers in the belfry area.

I can see where a roof burning and falling in could be threatening to the structure, but this doesn’t look like a “whole wooden interior” to me, it looks like a wooden attic or wooden roof structure. The main part of the building isn’t wood framed.
 
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BartholomewB said:
Macron is saying he hopes to rebuild Notre-Dame in five years
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Yeah, The Husband and I saw that address live on TV last night. We were both 🤣

Architects, engineers and other specialists in the field have estimated anything from 10-15 years to “decades.”
 
Another good diagram showing the relatively small portion of the building that was wood. I’m a bit baffled why the 1850 renovators thought it was a good idea to put a giant wooden spire on top of the building. Sure it looks nice but in case of a fire it doesn’t seem terribly safe.

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I’ll venture an unqualified guess: since the wooden roof predates the installation of the most recent spire, all other materials used for construction at the time were deemed too heavy to be supported by it or not durable enough to be worth the effort. One could question why there was a spire there at all, let alone one that weighed over 750 tons, but I understand Viollet-le-Duc’s desire to replace the original 13th-century spire, which had been removed in the 1700s due to its poor condition, and he did what he could with the options he had.
 
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