PMM
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Notre Dame
Apr 15, 2019, 22:27
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It struck me that there are hardly any humman made structures of such a scale and magnificence that are as old or older.
The Colosseum, The Great Pyramids, ancient sites like Carnac and Stonehenge, perhaps Mount Rushmore and the Burg Khalifa for the modern age.
Notre Dame is a soaring and magnificent symbol of the Churches link between the fall of Rome and the Dark Age that followed, to the Renaissence, built upon what had been carried through of Greek and Roman knowledge. It's not just a part of Parisien or even French cultural heritage. It's part of Europe's.
I hope they can save at least some of it.
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thesweetcheat
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Re: Notre Dame
Apr 15, 2019, 22:54
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Maybe I'm currently feeling a bit low with every news story (plastic, poverty, Brexit, the rise of the far right) but this has upset me a lot this evening.
I'm not religious and I know it's ultimately just a building, but even so I have found this gut-wrenchingly sad. As you say, it contained so much age, history and amazing craftsmanship. It may be "new" in TMA terms, but it's still survived for the best part of a thousand years, years filled with almost unending bloody conflict across western Europe.
The latest reports suggest that a great deal of the fabric can be saved (although at least one of the rose windows is gone). Most importantly it doesn't sound as though anyone has died in the fire. I hope it can be rebuilt.
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tjj
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Re: Notre Dame
Apr 15, 2019, 23:07
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thesweetcheat wrote: Maybe I'm currently feeling a bit low with every news story (plastic, poverty, Brexit, the rise of the far right) but this has upset me a lot this evening.
I'm not religious and I know it's ultimately just a building, but even so I have found this gut-wrenchingly sad. As you say, it contained so much age, history and amazing craftsmanship. It may be "new" in TMA terms, but it's still survived for the best part of a thousand years, years filled with almost unending bloody conflict across western Europe.
The latest reports suggest that a great deal of the fabric can be saved (although at least one of the rose windows is gone). Most importantly it doesn't sound as though anyone has died in the fire. I hope it can be rebuilt.
Thank you, you have articulated what everyone is feeling regardless of religious beliefs or politics. It is tragic - yet ironically the ugly Grenfell Tower was a far greater tragedy because it was full of people ... poor people. Does the craftsmanship that built the cathedrals all those centuries ago still exist I wonder.
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drewbhoy
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Re: Notre Dame
Apr 16, 2019, 00:02
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My friend Thierry Noritop of the band Stereo in Solo lives about 300m away from Notre Dame. He says the city is in a state of shock :-(
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moss
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Re: Notre Dame
Apr 16, 2019, 07:23
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Well the stone is at least saved, it will need repatching and roofing but its glorious structure will at least be saved and give today's craftsmen a chance to mimic the skills of the medievalist crafts.
Churches and graveyards lie at the centre of our communities, like the stone circles and barrows of prehistory, mostly defunct but their walls can tell tales. Here in Yorkshire, Saxon and Viking engraved stones and gravestones, down the road from us, the church has rose coloured walls up to 8 foot high caused by fire. In the 12th century when the English were fighting the Scots, a band of Scottish fighters came to the village. The villagers had locked themselves into the church, and the Scots set fire to the church which had a thatched roof.
Churches are strangely echoing the fate of stone circles as religion departs, beautiful churches will always have the tourist but the rest in the backwaters will fade away.....To be hunted out in another century just like TMAers do today with stone circles.
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nigelswift
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Re: Notre Dame
Apr 16, 2019, 07:45
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tjj wrote: Does the craftsmanship that built the cathedrals all those centuries ago still exist I wonder.
Yes, or it will do.
https://heritageaction.wordpress.com/2019/04/16/avec-sympathie-a-nos-amis/
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Howburn Digger
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Re: Notre Dame
Apr 16, 2019, 08:11
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PMM wrote:
Notre Dame is a soaring and magnificent symbol of the Churches link between the fall of Rome and the Dark Age that followed, to the Renaissence, built upon what had been carried through of Greek and Roman knowledge. It's not just a part of Parisien or even French cultural heritage. It's part of Europe's.
I hope they can save at least some of it.
I liked the flying buttresses. They reminded me of Jessie King's illustrative style somehow. Got friends that stay in Montreuil and our favourite place to eat is a wee Cafe just across the road from Notre Dame. They do a lovely steak (my son's fave).
https://goo.gl/maps/wv5rbXcYLhx
Don't know about links to the fall of Rome or Dark Ages (I think it is well after that time) but it certainly had real Gothic stuff, amazing stone carvings (got some dizzying photos from up top of the weird gargoyles gaping out over the city). Inside, the wood reeked of age and the walls were hung with loads of tapestries and gilded icons.
Looking at that footage from yesterday I cannot imagine any wood or art has made it through to today. I glad I went there a few times. They could well be renovating it for centuries.
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tjj
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Re: Notre Dame
Apr 16, 2019, 09:33
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nigelswift wrote:
Yes, it feels a bit more positive this morning as it hasn't been completely destroyed. Just been reminded that York Minster was badly damaged by fire in 1984 after being struck by lightning. Repairs were completed in 1988.
Also in the 1990s, St.George's Hall, Windsor Castle. Took five years to repair at a cost of £36.5million.
Where there's a will .... I am sure the money will come flowing in. Small donations from thousands of people as well as big money.
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nigelswift
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Re: Notre Dame
Apr 16, 2019, 10:00
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Thank goodness Fireman Donald didn't water bomb it!
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thesweetcheat
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Re: Notre Dame
Apr 16, 2019, 17:33
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Some positive photos from today:
https://twitter.com/areinaud/status/1117916691353067521?s=17
https://twitter.com/pighilltweets/status/1118052403708923904
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