The scene was stunning: The world was glued to coverage on cable news networks and streaming live video on the Internet: Notre-Dame in Paris was burning.. flames were red hot and billowing smoke was ruining what otherwise looked like a perfect day of blue skies in Paris…
Some on the NET likened the image to 9/11…others who didn’t live through that harrowing event was seeing destruction playing out in real time.. Spectators could do nothing but view the destruction as the flames tore through the almost-1000-year-old shrine…
Initial reports from the confusing scene indicted that the entire structure would be decimated.. a sudden burst of good news came as the flames began to get under control..
French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to rebuild Notre Dame with help from the international community after a devastating fire gutted the famous cathedral on Monday night.
Speaking just hours after the roof of the 850-year-old building caved in, Macron told the world’s assembled press that a national fundraising campaign to restore Notre Dame would be launched Tuesday, and he called on the world’s ‘greatest talents’ to help.
The French leader credited the ‘courage’ and ‘great professionalism’ of firefighters with sparing Notre Dame’s facade and two landmark towers from being destroyed.
Macron said: ‘We will appeal to the greatest talents and we will rebuild Notre-Dame because that’s what the French are waiting for, because that’s what our history deserves, because it’s our deepest destiny.’
The cathedral is considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic art– it also attracted tens of thousands of tourists yearly. It is one of the most widely recognized symbols of Paris France, and the Catholic religion..
The cathedral was begun in 1160 under Bishop Maurice de Sully and largely completed by 1260, though it was modified frequently in the following centuries. In the 1790s, Notre-Dame suffered desecration during the French Revolution when much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. In 1804, the cathedral was the site of the Coronation of Napoleon I as Emperor of France. During the 19th century, the church was the scene of the baptism of Henri, Count of Chambord in 1821 and the funerals of several presidents of the Third French Republic. Popular interest in the cathedral blossomed soon after the publication of Victor Hugo‘s novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in 1831. This led to a major restoration project supervised by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who added the cathedral’s iconic spire, from 1844 to 1864. The liberation of Paris was celebrated within Notre-Dame in 1944 with the singing of the Magnificat. Beginning in 1963, the façade of the cathedral was cleaned of centuries of soot and grime, returning it to its original colour. Another project of cleaning and restoration was carried out from 1991–2000. The cathedral celebrated its 850th anniversary in 2013
….today it’s most in ruins, with most if not all of the wooden portions of the building being completely destroyed.
Though a few images were being spread around the NET to give hope–a remaining cross inside..
One particularly eerie moment came when onlookers close by and around the word through media watched the spire of the cathedral collapse into the burning flames below. Newspapers from Europe are using that image as their cover tomorrow morning.
Nine centuries of history … crashing down.
There was something more bone chilling about the week that this occurred.. While a cause has yet to be determined, some online have been wildly speculating. . . But as that investigation develops, the pure fact is almost paranormal in its oddity: Holy Week, as the Catholic world preps to recognize Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, an image of the Catholic faith crashes into a burning pit of hellish flames…
DEVELOPING..
