Notre Dame Cathedral: Another case in a growing list of heritage landmarks destroyed by fire

Abstract

[Excerpt] April 16, 2019. After a more than twelve-hour battle involving 600 firefighters [1], the massive blaze that has destroyed much of the timber roof and toppled the Gothic spire of the Notre Dame Cathedral is fully extinguished. The official cause of the fire is still being investigated, but it seems likely that it may have resulted from restoration works taking place in the 850-year-old structure. After surviving the French Revolution and Nazi occupation during World War II, Notre Dame Cathedral, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture, succumbed to a blaze. As if this were not enough, a large number of extraordinary works of art, musical instruments, statues, woodworks, and religious relics, the full list of which is available on the Cathedral’s website [2], may also have been lost, not only due to the heat but also in consequence of the enormous quantities of water used to fight the fire. Even though it may be premature to draw any conclusions regarding this specific case, it is worth reflecting on the fact that Notre Dame Cathedral is just another entry in a long list of cultural heritage landmarks that have been, wholly or partially, tragically destroyed by fire. Among many other significant examples, such as Windsor Castle, York Minster, the Venice and Barcelona opera houses, and Bosnia’s National Library, it is impossible not to make note here of the National Museum of Brazil, which was ravaged by a huge fire on the night of September 2, 2018. Although some items were saved, the early nineteenth-century building was completely destroyed, in addition to more than 90% of its archive of 20 million items [3], including its Egyptology collection, which was one of the largest in Latin America, and some of the oldest human remains ever found in the Americas. […]