Our Lady: the damage and what could be saved | Is …

PageI12 in France

From Paris

An immortal night of fire and laceration in the heart of a country. What had become immortal status over the centuries disappeared in a few hours with the fire that destroyed much of Notre Dame Cathedral. The building prevented the complete collapse for half an hour thanks to the intervention of firefighters who entered "the towers to extinguish the fire from the inside," said the headman of the French Ministry of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez. Experts estimate today that the price of catering would increase between 600 million euros and one billion. One of the specialists, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, wonders in the pages of the weekly Le Nouvel Observateur how they will get "the necessary means to recover quickly this sum". A famous French architect, Paul Chemetov, believes that it will take "between ten and twenty years" of work to revive it. In a televised speech, French President Emmanuel Macron promised last night that it will be rebuilt "in five years". Last night too, a vigil in front of the cathedral gathered tens of thousands of people.

The fire causes pain as deep as an impulse of extraordinary solidarity. Among the pledges made by ordinary citizens, the sums promised by banks, companies of the country, multinationals and wealthy people were reached yesterday to the tune of 800 million euros in collections.

There is also a fairly precise balance of overall damage, what was protected and what was partially affected. The central altar is half intact, the 16th and 17th century paintings (the Mays) hanging on the walls of the large nave do not ignite but are affected by water. The three central doors of the west facade are saved: the portal of the Virgin that traces the episode of the death of Mary, her ascent to heaven and her coronation Queen of Heaven, the portal of judgment (year 1220) and the portal of Santa Ana (year 1200). It is not yet known if the three giant windows of Notre-Dame (rose windows) built in the thirteenth century can be recovered. The huge organ completed in the eighteenth century, its five keyboards and its 8,000 hits is still in an uncertain state, while awaiting a final badessment. In contrast, the central spire (year 1250) and the forest, that is, the entire roof (the frame) dating from 1160-1170 and considered a masterpiece of 39; medieval architecture, were consumed by the flames. Thanks to a human chain that was badembled in the middle of the disaster, several pieces of the treasure of Notre-Dame were protected: the San Luis tunic, the crown, a fragment of the cross of Calvary, the nails used to nail Christ, the two main towers of the building and the bells. There must have been 16 copper statues representing the 12 apostles and evangelists, but they dodged the fire because they had been dismantled a few days ago.

The main reason for the fire is always that advanced by firefighters the night of the fire. There is restoration work done on the needle. The Paris prosecutor's office also clarified that there was "no indication" so far indicating that it had been intentionally lit. In any case, the prosecutor Remi Heitz pointed out that it was "an involuntary destruction" and warned that the investigation would be "long and complex". The main witnesses to date are the 15 people who were in the cathedral at the time of the fire. The origin of the fire is really a mystery. As said the director of the company in charge of the restoration, Julien Le Bras, not only "the safety standards were met", but also repeated that "when the fire was declared, no my employees were not there. "

Yesterday, at 18:50, the bells of all the churches of France rang in unison in tribute to the devastated cathedral.

In the morning, from far or near, the landscape around Notre Dame Cathedral was dark. As the day before, thousands and thousands of people were stationed on the bridges and on the banks of the Seine, incredulous in the face of what looked like a calcined skeleton that lacked head, soul. "There is a hole in my heart and another in the skies of Paris," a neighbor of the Tower told PáginaI12. The woman, in her sixties, admits that she has never been a practitioner, but that the cathedral "looked like a beautiful bird still perched behind my window".

On the Puente de Arcole, neighbors, tourists, Parisians from other neighborhoods, Catholics, atheists, Muslims or Buddhists mingle in the same lament. A common voice emerged from this crowd: "It's like we've lost a mother."

There is a sort of mysterious feeling blowing through this distressed and silent crowd. Everyone seems to regard Our Lady not as an architectural building or relic, nor as a pile of stones wisely designed by a church at the most influential moment in history, but as a being, as a human person, in as a historical subject. meat and bones. "It's the mother of Paris, the earthly vessel that has insinuated an immortal resonance with the sky, which has transmitted to us the intuition that certain human things can be eternal and unite men, no matter what they create," says Stephanie, a nun who came to the train tomorrow from a suburban diocese.

People come and go, even the very young. They stop at bridges, watch and think. They seem connected to the cathedral, beyond their faith or their indifference. Human life is ephemeral. The stones too. As father Laurent Lemoine wrote in the newspaper Libération: "These stones speak about us". Notre Dame would not be what it is without the extraordinary narrative power of Victor Hugo, who extracted it from the hands of the Church for the people to appropriate it. In this novel (Notre-Dame de Paris), Hugo writes: "On the facade of this ancient queen of our cathedrals, next to a wrinkle we always find a scar.Tempus edax, homo edacior.What I would like to translate as this: the time is blind, the man is stupid. "