11 ms·

Notre Dame rises again

225 points by gibspaulding 4y ago

euroclydon 4y ago
I never knew what a flying buttress was. They sure are ugly. Makes the building look like a group of giant spiders.
- VHRanger 4y ago
  They were necessary back then to keep an open space interior. With modern building techniques they're obviously not necessary. That said, most people love them
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
  Funny enough I think this was the common view when they were introduced as well. They were a necessary kludge to get certain interior features and through age and context they've become appreciated for their own sake.
- pyrale 4y ago
  They are necessary to prevent the massive weight of the roof from pushing the walls. The benefit of having flying buttresses as opposed to traditional buttresses is that it lets much more light go through the windows. So you can have a higher and larger nave, with larger windows that receive more light. The key to understanding this architectural choice is that cathedrals are meant to be seen from the inside and from the front, mostly.
hgazx 4y ago
- vidoc 4y ago
  [flagged]
telotortium 4y ago
Tl;Dr it's being rebuilt exactly as before (according to the 19th century Viollet-le-Duc restoration).
RjQoLCOSwiIKfpm 4y ago
The pictured glass plate photos seem fake to me, i.e. they seem to be recent pictures which have been photoshoped to look like glass plates: If you go to the gallery you'll notice the 3rd picture contains some cables at the bottom. These cables seem to be attached to the building by a *transparent* piece of material. Which would be plastic I guess? And transparent plastic wouldn't have been used for attaching cables to buildings back then? It also says "Photograph by Tomas van Houtryve", and that person is still alive according to Google. If it really were glass plates he would probably be dead already?
- ryanmercer 4y ago
  >they seem to be recent pictures which have been photoshoped to look like glass plates: If you click Tomas's name and scroll down some you see on his profile "Photographer Tomas van Houtryve captured the 19th-century grotesques, or chimeras, with 19th-century equipment: under a dark cloak, on glass plates, with a wooden camera he picked up in a Paris antique shop." https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/photographer/tomas-van-houtryve https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/photographer/tomas-van-... He's a modern Belgian documentary photographer using period equipment.
  - RjQoLCOSwiIKfpm 4y ago
    Thanks for figuring that out! Now further questions arise: Did he artificially age the glass plates? Because the damage of the photo layer at the edges would normally be due to aging? How would you even age them artificially like that? Also, where do you obtain fresh, unused glass plates nowadays? I have a suitable camera but no plates! :)
    - ryanmercer 4y ago
      I have no clue about the process but if I had to guess I imagine it has something to do with the chemicals not being evenly distributed either by inexperience, some sort of mask used before chemical exposure to achieve the effect, or the process is just prone to doing that.
justinator 4y ago
A wonderful article. As a lover of art history, Notre Dame is an interesting example of European living art. As a former Catholic now atheist, I just don't know exactly how I feel about it's symbolism. I never had doubt that the cathedral would be rebuilt, though. A few years to rebuild is merely a wink in the time it took to, "finish" it.
- VHRanger 4y ago
  You can enjoy the architecture and art (Notre Dame) without necessarily endorsing the artist (the church institution). Other examples: - Roman Polanski is a bad human who made good movies - The Pyramids of Egypt are grand structures but accomplished with slave labor etc. etc.
  - jakear 4y ago
    Slaves didn't build the pyramids: > Animal bones found at the village show that the workers were getting the best cuts of meat. More than anything, there were bread jars, hundreds and thousands of them – enough to feed all the workers, who slept in long, purpose-built dormitories. Slaves would never have been treated this well, so we think that these labourers were recruited from farms, perhaps from a region much further down the Nile, near Luxor. https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/were-the-egyptian-pyramids-built-by-slaves/ https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/were-the-egyptian-pyram...
  - virtualritz 4y ago
    Not disagreeing with your point. However: > The Pyramids of Egypt are grand structures but accomplished with slave labor That theory is not well supported any more as of ca. 2010.[1] [1] see Construction/Workforce in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza
  - justinator 4y ago
    I... know. Although your examples are pretty bad. Roman Polanski is still alive, lives within the same legal boundaries of my world and should face the same repercussions for crimes. I may elect to not watch his films in favor of another artist as I certainly do not condone his behavior. A historical church from the Middle Ages built by generations of anonymous builders - maybe a different situation.
pen2l 4y ago
I was fortunate enough to visit it the year before it caught on fire. It's just a cathedral, I thought, just an attraction to check off from my 'list of things to see' so I visited it on a whim really on a lazy Sunday afternoon while I was around the area. Oh man, there is something about it, the grandness, the structure. The rebuild appears to going for a very faithful reconstruction of what it was before. Definitely go see it if you get the chance.
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
  The interior of the "Sainte-Chapelle", which is nearby is even more breathtaking, IMHO. Both deserve a visit.
  - anonAndOn 4y ago
    They hold (held?) small, intimate classical concerts in the chapel infrequently during the summer which gave the audience a glimpse of what it must've been like to live like royalty. The experience was sublime.
  - cjaro 4y ago
    La Sainte-Chapelle was far better than the Notre Dame for me. I went to mass at the cathedral but the art and design of the Saint-Chapelle was more beautiful to me. I grew up catholic so maybe huge grand cathedrals don't really inspire much beyond reluctance and memories of suffocating in stuffy cathedrals my whole childhhood. It is a beautiful piece of history, but that's the extent of it for me. Cheers to those to find the cathedral moving or breathtaking.
- drewzero1 4y ago
  I was in Paris for only a day in 2015 and saw Notre Dame from the outside but did not have the time to wait in line. I fondly remember everything I was able to experience walking up and down the Seine that day, but a small part of me regrets being so close and not going in.
- rmason 4y ago
  I've had people tell me it's just a church. Course they've never visited. I was there for the first time in 1975. It took my breath away, there's definitely something spiritual you feel to your core. I felt extreme joy, awe and happiness. The only other time that I've been such moved is when I visited Dachau. But it's a different feeling one of darkness and extreme sadness. Both are worth visiting to experience the true arc of human experience.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
throw0101a 4y ago
Meta: What structures built today will be thought important/sacred/useful enough to be kept around for several hundred years? * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris
- avemg 4y ago
  We'll never know. That's for future generations to decide!
- wongarsu 4y ago
  Notre Dame took about a century to complete, keeping it around for at least ten times its construction time isn't crazy compared to other structures. In that vein, the Sagrada Família [1] might get finished this decade, was started in 1883, and is likely to be kept around for a couple centuries. [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia
  - rob74 4y ago
    The Sagrada Familia was my first thought too. Definitely worth a visit! I think it very much carries on the spirit of Gothic cathedrals. Those builders used the best construction techniques of their time to create breathtaking buildings, and Gaudí did the same with the techniques of his time (and those who picked up the work after he died did the same). The interior with the tree-like branching columns is especially impressive...
- munk-a 4y ago
  Probably buildings that gain historical significance - that's a very hard thing to predict but I'd guess the next important site is probably going to be where Ukraine and Russia sign a treat to cease violence - assuming that happens and that it happens on Ukrainian soil.
  - bobthepanda 4y ago
    Yes and no. Some sites of historical significance were intentionally destroyed, particularly if the memory is painful. Most notably it has been very hard to preserve what remains of the Berlin Wall as a memorial.
cb7 4y ago
- selimthegrim 4y ago
  Do you have even the tiniest shred of circumstantial evidence this was intentional?
- chki 4y ago
  Just to make this clear to everybody: there are no signs at all that this fire was arson. There are multiple explanations for the cause of the fire involving the construction site and some sort of negligence, which seem highly likely to be true.
  - namecheapTA 4y ago
    - User23 4y ago
    - galgot 4y ago
      I've seen news of churches (Catholic, as most Churches are in France) been set on fire maybe 2 or 3 times in the news here in France, that was a while ago... Not seen any news like that recently. Are there any sources about the true numbers of these arson fires ? I had the same conversation with someone living in the US at the time of the Notre-Dame fire, I couldn't come with more than 2 or 3 occurrences reported in the French press naming specifics cases with places names and all, while he, in the US would provide me with dozen of press reports of "Churches are burnings by numbers in France !" type of titles ... Many from a very specific side of the political spectrum.
  - seszett 4y ago
    And the "wave" was a handful of unrelated fires that happened near churches (not even in churches for most of them) over a few years and were mounted as a "wave of arson" by extreme-right websites during the height of Syrian refugees influx. The original website that had a map of these events (that you had to look up yourself to see they amounted to nothing) isn't even online anymore as far as I can see, now this false fact is just a urban legend with a life of its own.
shlip 4y ago
Since the time that article was written, several problems have arised/surfaced concerning the restoration project (Le canard enchainé, June 26 2022, p.5): - Some of the wood used in the foundational carpentry work (tabouret) was found to not meet quality criteria ( not dry enough ). - An other lead sarcophagus was found on site in June. Georgelin refused to have archeologists extract and/or study it. - The stacked bungalows used as life quarters for workers do not meet the security criteria and part of them are therefore not allowed to be used. It should also be noted that Georgelin is willing to do anything in order to meet the 2024 deadline, even if it means botching all the work.
- xwolfi 4y ago
  "botching all the work" and "not meeting french quality criteria" are so far away. Almost as laughable as quoting le Canard Enchainé as more than a tongue in cheek rumour mill.
  - Reventlov 4y ago
    Le Canard Enchaîné is not a « tongue in cheek rumour mill », it has revealed many scandals in France (mainly political): https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_d%27affaires_r%C3%A9v%C3%A9l%C3%A9es_par_Le_Canard_encha%C3%AEn%C3%A9 https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_d%27affaires_r%C3%A9v%C3... Saying it's a rumour mill is wrong.
    - cm2187 4y ago
      It has also revealed as many scandals that turned out to be pure libel. It is basically an anonymous postbox for journalists to publish papers that were turned down by their own editor.
    - hokkos 4y ago
      If you ever know a subject well you'll see the Canard has the worst journalist and article for it, also they create controversy and outrage over the most minor thing.
- 4y ago
bombela 4y ago
This website is cancer. Randomly switch to a different article. And hijack the history in a loop.
- pwg 4y ago
  Using Ublock Origin to block all the javascript allows the article to be read, without random switches or history hijacking.
- ainiriand 4y ago
  I agree, also the article is shown in the UK version of the site, for an European building and somehow displays the temperature in Fahrenheit.
akharris 4y ago
There's a wonderful interview with the photographer for this piece, Tomas van Houtryve, on Leica's blog: https://leica-camera.blog/2022/05/09/rebuilding-notre-dame/ https://leica-camera.blog/2022/05/09/rebuilding-notre-dame/.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Those photos are really beautiful.
bendbro 4y ago
Thank god they didn't pick one of those modern atrocities. And yes, before any speculate, I am unironically an out-of-the-closet bigot.
arthurcolle 4y ago
Any bets on what cursed specimen is inside the lead sarcophagus?
spawarotti 4y ago
https://archive.ph/V9ALy https://archive.ph/V9ALy
dreen 4y ago
Rebuilding "as it was", despite calls for modernization, is also something that happened after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Especially Christopher Wren, one of the most famous architects of XVII century, was supposedly very upset that his plan for a concentric ring-like city plan was rejected, in favour of rebuilding the city with all its tangled medieval street plan.
- owoskdhrkr 4y ago
  Details: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jan/25/how-london-might-have-looked-five-masterplans-after-great-fire-1666 https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jan/25/how-london-mi... I don't think Wren's plan looks very concentric or ring-like. He also got to rebuild St. Paul's to a completely new design, in those years. Maintaining the original plot boundaries, as the city was rebuilt, naturally didn't interfere with the cathedral.
  - dreen 4y ago
    Thanks, never saw the plan just heard an anecdote. And it's interesting to learn London landlords could be as "assertive" in XVII century as they are now
fritztastic 4y ago
Can the wood beams be seen in the cathedral? Do visitors ever tour the roof area? I'm trying to understand why it is so important to rebuild it exactly like the original, the benefits of this besides being faithful to the historical structure. Wouldn't it make more sense to innovate and make a new roof that would offer potential features to the cathedral? Anyway I thought this part was funny > “I see, monsieur, you have been contaminated by those who believe the president of the republic should not be interfering in the reconstruction of Notre Dame,” he boomed. “You have been contaminated by the party of slowness.” Georgelin is a good-humoured alpha type Sounds more like a condescending way to avoid addressing the topic to me, personally. But that's just my opinion.
1337shadow 4y ago
Nice little story about how the people burnt Notre Dame a couple centuries ago. This makes me think about how Notre Dame has been rising for a millennium, how are we supposed to believe it "took fire" exactly? Cause the article is clear: last time it burnt like that it was because people did it on purpose. Do you think whoever did this has been forgiven, or "is yet to be found"?
tanelpoder 4y ago
I wonder if there's any article keeping track of how much money the billionaires actually donated vs. the promise & pledge competition between them when the topic was still hot?
Arofii 4y ago
Dylanfm 4y ago
For anyone interested in the kind of timber framing used in these buildings, here are a couple of videos that I've been enjoying: Carl Rogers & family are restoring an old French farmhouse and have a series of very well made videos about the process. There are separate 1-5 videos of this barn build, but here's a shorter version that's combined: https://youtu.be/K75pQ2HxRgM https://youtu.be/K75pQ2HxRgM Another good channel has this recent video showing a legit medieval castle being rebuilt in France using simple tools and traditional methods. There's a section on working with green oak where they use a side-axe to square up some lumber https://youtu.be/Ajqort8ldXA https://youtu.be/Ajqort8ldXA Mr Chickadee is another high quality channel for expert timber framing using hand-tools only https://www.youtube.com/c/MrChickadee https://www.youtube.com/c/MrChickadee

225 points by gibspaulding 4y ago

euroclydon 4y ago

I never knew what a flying buttress was. They sure are ugly. Makes the building look like a group of giant spiders.

VHRanger 4y ago
They were necessary back then to keep an open space interior. With modern building techniques they're obviously not necessary. That said, most people love them
giraffe_lady 4y ago
Funny enough I think this was the common view when they were introduced as well. They were a necessary kludge to get certain interior features and through age and context they've become appreciated for their own sake.
pyrale 4y ago
They are necessary to prevent the massive weight of the roof from pushing the walls. The benefit of having flying buttresses as opposed to traditional buttresses is that it lets much more light go through the windows. So you can have a higher and larger nave, with larger windows that receive more light. The key to understanding this architectural choice is that cathedrals are meant to be seen from the inside and from the front, mostly.

hgazx 4y ago

vidoc 4y ago
[flagged]

telotortium 4y ago

Tl;Dr it's being rebuilt exactly as before (according to the 19th century Viollet-le-Duc restoration).

RjQoLCOSwiIKfpm 4y ago

The pictured glass plate photos seem fake to me, i.e. they seem to be recent pictures which have been photoshoped to look like glass plates: If you go to the gallery you'll notice the 3rd picture contains some cables at the bottom. These cables seem to be attached to the building by a *transparent* piece of material. Which would be plastic I guess? And transparent plastic wouldn't have been used for attaching cables to buildings back then? It also says "Photograph by Tomas van Houtryve", and that person is still alive according to Google. If it really were glass plates he would probably be dead already?

ryanmercer 4y ago
>they seem to be recent pictures which have been photoshoped to look like glass plates: If you click Tomas's name and scroll down some you see on his profile "Photographer Tomas van Houtryve captured the 19th-century grotesques, or chimeras, with 19th-century equipment: under a dark cloak, on glass plates, with a wooden camera he picked up in a Paris antique shop." https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/photographer/tomas-van-houtryve https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/photographer/tomas-van-... He's a modern Belgian documentary photographer using period equipment.
- RjQoLCOSwiIKfpm 4y ago
  Thanks for figuring that out! Now further questions arise: Did he artificially age the glass plates? Because the damage of the photo layer at the edges would normally be due to aging? How would you even age them artificially like that? Also, where do you obtain fresh, unused glass plates nowadays? I have a suitable camera but no plates! :)
  - ryanmercer 4y ago
    I have no clue about the process but if I had to guess I imagine it has something to do with the chemicals not being evenly distributed either by inexperience, some sort of mask used before chemical exposure to achieve the effect, or the process is just prone to doing that.

justinator 4y ago

A wonderful article. As a lover of art history, Notre Dame is an interesting example of European living art. As a former Catholic now atheist, I just don't know exactly how I feel about it's symbolism. I never had doubt that the cathedral would be rebuilt, though. A few years to rebuild is merely a wink in the time it took to, "finish" it.

VHRanger 4y ago
You can enjoy the architecture and art (Notre Dame) without necessarily endorsing the artist (the church institution). Other examples: - Roman Polanski is a bad human who made good movies - The Pyramids of Egypt are grand structures but accomplished with slave labor etc. etc.
- jakear 4y ago
  Slaves didn't build the pyramids: > Animal bones found at the village show that the workers were getting the best cuts of meat. More than anything, there were bread jars, hundreds and thousands of them – enough to feed all the workers, who slept in long, purpose-built dormitories. Slaves would never have been treated this well, so we think that these labourers were recruited from farms, perhaps from a region much further down the Nile, near Luxor. https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/were-the-egyptian-pyramids-built-by-slaves/ https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/were-the-egyptian-pyram...
- virtualritz 4y ago
  Not disagreeing with your point. However: > The Pyramids of Egypt are grand structures but accomplished with slave labor That theory is not well supported any more as of ca. 2010.[1] [1] see Construction/Workforce in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza
- justinator 4y ago
  I... know. Although your examples are pretty bad. Roman Polanski is still alive, lives within the same legal boundaries of my world and should face the same repercussions for crimes. I may elect to not watch his films in favor of another artist as I certainly do not condone his behavior. A historical church from the Middle Ages built by generations of anonymous builders - maybe a different situation.

pen2l 4y ago

I was fortunate enough to visit it the year before it caught on fire. It's just a cathedral, I thought, just an attraction to check off from my 'list of things to see' so I visited it on a whim really on a lazy Sunday afternoon while I was around the area. Oh man, there is something about it, the grandness, the structure. The rebuild appears to going for a very faithful reconstruction of what it was before. Definitely go see it if you get the chance.

mytailorisrich 4y ago
The interior of the "Sainte-Chapelle", which is nearby is even more breathtaking, IMHO. Both deserve a visit.
- anonAndOn 4y ago
  They hold (held?) small, intimate classical concerts in the chapel infrequently during the summer which gave the audience a glimpse of what it must've been like to live like royalty. The experience was sublime.
- cjaro 4y ago
  La Sainte-Chapelle was far better than the Notre Dame for me. I went to mass at the cathedral but the art and design of the Saint-Chapelle was more beautiful to me. I grew up catholic so maybe huge grand cathedrals don't really inspire much beyond reluctance and memories of suffocating in stuffy cathedrals my whole childhhood. It is a beautiful piece of history, but that's the extent of it for me. Cheers to those to find the cathedral moving or breathtaking.
drewzero1 4y ago
I was in Paris for only a day in 2015 and saw Notre Dame from the outside but did not have the time to wait in line. I fondly remember everything I was able to experience walking up and down the Seine that day, but a small part of me regrets being so close and not going in.
rmason 4y ago
I've had people tell me it's just a church. Course they've never visited. I was there for the first time in 1975. It took my breath away, there's definitely something spiritual you feel to your core. I felt extreme joy, awe and happiness. The only other time that I've been such moved is when I visited Dachau. But it's a different feeling one of darkness and extreme sadness. Both are worth visiting to experience the true arc of human experience.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

throw0101a 4y ago

Meta: What structures built today will be thought important/sacred/useful enough to be kept around for several hundred years? * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris

avemg 4y ago
We'll never know. That's for future generations to decide!
wongarsu 4y ago
Notre Dame took about a century to complete, keeping it around for at least ten times its construction time isn't crazy compared to other structures. In that vein, the Sagrada Família [1] might get finished this decade, was started in 1883, and is likely to be kept around for a couple centuries. [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia
- rob74 4y ago
  The Sagrada Familia was my first thought too. Definitely worth a visit! I think it very much carries on the spirit of Gothic cathedrals. Those builders used the best construction techniques of their time to create breathtaking buildings, and Gaudí did the same with the techniques of his time (and those who picked up the work after he died did the same). The interior with the tree-like branching columns is especially impressive...
munk-a 4y ago
Probably buildings that gain historical significance - that's a very hard thing to predict but I'd guess the next important site is probably going to be where Ukraine and Russia sign a treat to cease violence - assuming that happens and that it happens on Ukrainian soil.
- bobthepanda 4y ago
  Yes and no. Some sites of historical significance were intentionally destroyed, particularly if the memory is painful. Most notably it has been very hard to preserve what remains of the Berlin Wall as a memorial.

cb7 4y ago

selimthegrim 4y ago
Do you have even the tiniest shred of circumstantial evidence this was intentional?
chki 4y ago
Just to make this clear to everybody: there are no signs at all that this fire was arson. There are multiple explanations for the cause of the fire involving the construction site and some sort of negligence, which seem highly likely to be true.
- namecheapTA 4y ago
  - User23 4y ago
  - galgot 4y ago
    I've seen news of churches (Catholic, as most Churches are in France) been set on fire maybe 2 or 3 times in the news here in France, that was a while ago... Not seen any news like that recently. Are there any sources about the true numbers of these arson fires ? I had the same conversation with someone living in the US at the time of the Notre-Dame fire, I couldn't come with more than 2 or 3 occurrences reported in the French press naming specifics cases with places names and all, while he, in the US would provide me with dozen of press reports of "Churches are burnings by numbers in France !" type of titles ... Many from a very specific side of the political spectrum.
- seszett 4y ago
  And the "wave" was a handful of unrelated fires that happened near churches (not even in churches for most of them) over a few years and were mounted as a "wave of arson" by extreme-right websites during the height of Syrian refugees influx. The original website that had a map of these events (that you had to look up yourself to see they amounted to nothing) isn't even online anymore as far as I can see, now this false fact is just a urban legend with a life of its own.

shlip 4y ago

Since the time that article was written, several problems have arised/surfaced concerning the restoration project (Le canard enchainé, June 26 2022, p.5): - Some of the wood used in the foundational carpentry work (tabouret) was found to not meet quality criteria ( not dry enough ). - An other lead sarcophagus was found on site in June. Georgelin refused to have archeologists extract and/or study it. - The stacked bungalows used as life quarters for workers do not meet the security criteria and part of them are therefore not allowed to be used. It should also be noted that Georgelin is willing to do anything in order to meet the 2024 deadline, even if it means botching all the work.

xwolfi 4y ago
"botching all the work" and "not meeting french quality criteria" are so far away. Almost as laughable as quoting le Canard Enchainé as more than a tongue in cheek rumour mill.
- Reventlov 4y ago
  Le Canard Enchaîné is not a « tongue in cheek rumour mill », it has revealed many scandals in France (mainly political): https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_d%27affaires_r%C3%A9v%C3%A9l%C3%A9es_par_Le_Canard_encha%C3%AEn%C3%A9 https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_d%27affaires_r%C3%A9v%C3... Saying it's a rumour mill is wrong.
  - cm2187 4y ago
    It has also revealed as many scandals that turned out to be pure libel. It is basically an anonymous postbox for journalists to publish papers that were turned down by their own editor.
  - hokkos 4y ago
    If you ever know a subject well you'll see the Canard has the worst journalist and article for it, also they create controversy and outrage over the most minor thing.
4y ago

bombela 4y ago

This website is cancer. Randomly switch to a different article. And hijack the history in a loop.

pwg 4y ago
Using Ublock Origin to block all the javascript allows the article to be read, without random switches or history hijacking.
ainiriand 4y ago
I agree, also the article is shown in the UK version of the site, for an European building and somehow displays the temperature in Fahrenheit.

akharris 4y ago

There's a wonderful interview with the photographer for this piece, Tomas van Houtryve, on Leica's blog: https://leica-camera.blog/2022/05/09/rebuilding-notre-dame/ https://leica-camera.blog/2022/05/09/rebuilding-notre-dame/.

jacquesm 4y ago
Those photos are really beautiful.

bendbro 4y ago

Thank god they didn't pick one of those modern atrocities. And yes, before any speculate, I am unironically an out-of-the-closet bigot.

arthurcolle 4y ago

Any bets on what cursed specimen is inside the lead sarcophagus?

spawarotti 4y ago

https://archive.ph/V9ALy https://archive.ph/V9ALy

dreen 4y ago

Rebuilding "as it was", despite calls for modernization, is also something that happened after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Especially Christopher Wren, one of the most famous architects of XVII century, was supposedly very upset that his plan for a concentric ring-like city plan was rejected, in favour of rebuilding the city with all its tangled medieval street plan.

owoskdhrkr 4y ago
Details: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jan/25/how-london-might-have-looked-five-masterplans-after-great-fire-1666 https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jan/25/how-london-mi... I don't think Wren's plan looks very concentric or ring-like. He also got to rebuild St. Paul's to a completely new design, in those years. Maintaining the original plot boundaries, as the city was rebuilt, naturally didn't interfere with the cathedral.
- dreen 4y ago
  Thanks, never saw the plan just heard an anecdote. And it's interesting to learn London landlords could be as "assertive" in XVII century as they are now

fritztastic 4y ago

Can the wood beams be seen in the cathedral? Do visitors ever tour the roof area? I'm trying to understand why it is so important to rebuild it exactly like the original, the benefits of this besides being faithful to the historical structure. Wouldn't it make more sense to innovate and make a new roof that would offer potential features to the cathedral? Anyway I thought this part was funny > “I see, monsieur, you have been contaminated by those who believe the president of the republic should not be interfering in the reconstruction of Notre Dame,” he boomed. “You have been contaminated by the party of slowness.” Georgelin is a good-humoured alpha type Sounds more like a condescending way to avoid addressing the topic to me, personally. But that's just my opinion.

1337shadow 4y ago

Nice little story about how the people burnt Notre Dame a couple centuries ago. This makes me think about how Notre Dame has been rising for a millennium, how are we supposed to believe it "took fire" exactly? Cause the article is clear: last time it burnt like that it was because people did it on purpose. Do you think whoever did this has been forgiven, or "is yet to be found"?

tanelpoder 4y ago

I wonder if there's any article keeping track of how much money the billionaires actually donated vs. the promise & pledge competition between them when the topic was still hot?

Arofii 4y ago

Dylanfm 4y ago

For anyone interested in the kind of timber framing used in these buildings, here are a couple of videos that I've been enjoying: Carl Rogers & family are restoring an old French farmhouse and have a series of very well made videos about the process. There are separate 1-5 videos of this barn build, but here's a shorter version that's combined: https://youtu.be/K75pQ2HxRgM https://youtu.be/K75pQ2HxRgM Another good channel has this recent video showing a legit medieval castle being rebuilt in France using simple tools and traditional methods. There's a section on working with green oak where they use a side-axe to square up some lumber https://youtu.be/Ajqort8ldXA https://youtu.be/Ajqort8ldXA Mr Chickadee is another high quality channel for expert timber framing using hand-tools only https://www.youtube.com/c/MrChickadee https://www.youtube.com/c/MrChickadee