Notre Dame is burning.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The steeple is gone. Collapsed in.

'Luckily' it's a 19th century replacement I think. But the roof is completely gutted.

A lot of the building, particularly the interior, is/was. The 'good' news is that cathedrals are living buildings and the French state will presumably throw open the coffers to rebuild and restore what has to be. The bad news is that, being realistic, they're unlikely to do as good a job as their 19th century forebears did. Have to hope as much of the shell survives as possible. That aside the main worry has to be for the stained glass...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Look at the rose window there. F**k.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What caused the fire is still unclear?

It is being widely reported that the fire is linked to ongoing restoration work. If this turns out to be so, then I hope there are prosecutions.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Is the claim that laïcité would complicate such matters (as I've heard in the past regarding why the restoration efforts rely primarily on private donations) rooted in anything but urban myth?

Not familiar enough with French law to know for sure. But even if that is the case, then I'm sure exemptions can be made...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I wonder if wouldn't it be better, due to impossibility of reconstructing the interior without it reeking artificiality, to turn the renovated cathedral into some sort of museum. Just a thought.

A Cathedral is a living building; there's no reason why it cannot be a restoration of a restoration (as it would be: and almost certainly will be). The memory, meaning and history lost won't be replaceable and it won't be as good - even if we ignore the difficulties of replicating techniques of the Middle Ages, even replicating those used in the great restoration of the 19th century will be hard going - but it will still be Notre-Dame, the great Cathedral of Paris. Consider the rebuilding of Reims Cathedral a century ago now.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Anyway, the survival of the West End is, all things considered, something to be extraordinarily thankful for.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Far more of the interior structure has survived than seemed plausible a couple of hours ago. Quite the credit to the original builders, and the 19th century restorers too.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Am heading reports that the lower North rose window appears to have survived. Also sounds like it’s the only one that did.

If true that could almost be called miraculous. North rose is/was actually the one with the most material from the Middle Ages.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And, outing myself further as an architectural geek, while the stained glass has been saved it may have internally shattered as happened with York Minster, so they'll need to check that out first and secure it with adhesive plastic before removal.

Yes, it shouldn't be assumed that the glass that has survived will be in a good way, or that any restoration required on the glass will be quick (it certainly wasn't at York Minister). But I'm - is it possible to have bittersweet delight? - that any survived at all, let alone a decent proportion (it seems). The extent to which the building protected itself (as you say, vaulting in a cathedral isn't just there because it is extremely pretty) is remarkable.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Just imagine a Europe that was covered in these giant trees less than a millennium ago.

It wasn't though. The approximate balance between farmland and woodland has been roughly the same in most of Western Europe since the Bronze Age (with a degree of fluctuation over time) and woods have been managed environments throughout the period. 'Wildwood' disappeared a long, long time ago: we don't even really know what it would have looked like. What is true is that the spread of modern Prussian forestry methods (as opposed to the traditional irregular systems of timber trees here, and coppices for wood there etc.) from the late 18th century has resulted in more uniformity within woodlands and in considerably less very old trees than would otherwise be the case* - but very old European broadleaf trees of any species are generally not suitable for use as timber trees!

_{*I think a majority of trees over a certain age in all of Western Europe are in just one country; i.e. Britain.}

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yup. A major reason why Britain turned to coal in the 17th century was that the island was suffering a shortage of charcoal due to overuse of the forests. For most purposes, charcoal is superior to the coal found in Britain.

No, completely untrue. Old (and self-evidently ridiculous if you know anything about charcoal production) myth.

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The really bizarre part is that it is the hired architect who is talking sense, while the other people insist on the viability of making monuments to themselves.

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For those of us whose French is limited, is Macron still trying to rebuild the cathedral as the Temple of the Supreme Being (with the Supreme Being presumably being Macron himself)?

Just the spire. Which, as the architect has pointed out, is structurally important not a mere decoration...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Viollet-le-Duc's restoration took twenty years. Of course that is including lengthy periods in which there was no work because the money had run out.