Notre Dame is burning. Nine hundred years of history, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, a centerpiece of civilization. It stood on the Île de la Cité when Paris was a village. It witnessed the Vikings; it overshadowed the Nazis. I had hoped that the medieval windows might survive, but there’s every indication that they’re gone, the lead spines melted along with the leaded roof and the glass shattered.
There will be restoration. If you think about the sheer number of buildings that were bombed to shells and burned out in the last centuries while wars ravaged back and forth across Europe, you know of course the cathedral will be rebuilt. It’ll be a close approximation of what stood yesterday. But we’re poorer today, all of us, even as heroic firefighters do whatever is humanly possible to save what can be saved.
There’s some good news. The cathedral had closed to visitors shortly before the fire broke out, so the place wasn’t full of panicked tourists. The statues had been removed from the spire area, where apparently the fire started, as the spire was under renovation; one of the most acutely dangerous times in a building’s life is when renovation is ongoing. So the historic statues were saved.
Although some of the great art works of the Middle Ages — the woodwork, the tapestries, the frescoes, the windows — are destroyed, a remarkable amount of treasure, especially art and relics, has been saved.
Thus far, no one has been killed; one injury reported — a firefighter. That is, of course, subject to change.
If you want to keep up with a reliable and knowledgeable news source, click on the Medievalists.net twitter stream above. Stay away from cable: three days late, two dollars short, and klaxons blaring.
Sorry folks, I got nothing tonight. No snark, no analysis. Nothing approaching wisdom or perspective. As a medievalist I’m heartbroken, but thankful that the cathedral’s treasures were conserved and no one was killed. I have to believe in restoration. But otherwise, I have no words for this grief.
Update: Parisian firefighters have announced that the main structure has been saved.
I still live in hope of seeing the gargoyles some day.
P.S.: Gene Wolfe died yesterday. In the arts and in the world, this week just sucks.