tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/notre-dame-fire-69515/articlesNotre Dame fire – The Conversation2020-01-29T17:53:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1307332020-01-29T17:53:01Z2020-01-29T17:53:01ZNotre-Dame and Venice: why such a gap in generosity?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312280/original/file-20200128-81346-w6ko10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C62%2C6000%2C3467&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On November 12, 2019, in Venise, the sea rose 1.87 metres above its normal level, flooding much of the city.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ihor Serdyukov/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The year 2019 was marked by catastrophes that hit two major jewels of European heritage, seven months apart: the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on April 15 and the Venice floods that began on November 12. Drawing 13 and 35 million tourists a year respectively, Notre-Dame and Venice are internationally recognized symbols that have fascinated artists, believers and tourists for centuries.</p>
<p>Photos of their destruction have been shared over and over again in the media, far more than <a href="https://ilglobo.com.au/news/46055/not-just-venice-matera-calls-for-support-after-damaging-floods/">other disasters</a> of the same scale, and have left their mark on people’s spirits and triggered countless political and social reactions. Both situations were followed by a call for donations to collect funds for repairing the damage. </p>
<p>The results of these appeals have been vastly different, however, and to understand why, we interviewed Italian colleagues doing research on philanthropy.</p>
<h2>Two dramas, two strategies</h2>
<p>Paris firefighters had just barely brought the flames under control at Notre-Dame when an <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/notre-dame-fire-fund-rebuild-donate-macron-paris-cathedral-a8873846.html">incredible outpouring of generosity began</a>. France’s Fondation du Patrimoine was the first to launch a fundraising campaign, swiftly followed by the Fondation de France, the Fondation Notre-Dame and the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, all approved by the French government.</p>
<p>The country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/macron-rebuild-notre-dame-1518112">appeared on television that same evening</a> to announce a national strategy for rebuilding Notre-Dame. By the next day, donations had exceeded expectations: 400 million euros pledged by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-profane-and-the-sacred-why-luxury-firms-rushed-to-support-notre-dame-115739">Arnault, Pinault and Bettencourt families</a>, 100 million euros by Total and L’Oréal, as well as donations pledged from enterprises, communities and nations. Not to mention countless donations from individuals in France and from around the world, who donated 30 million euros in only a few hours, mostly online and via cellphones. By April 17, donations were estimated to reach almost 1 billion euros, an unprecedented figure.</p>
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<p>The Venetian floods in November 2019 provoked an entirely different reaction. On Tuesday, November 12, a historic high tide flooded the city with 1.87 meters of water, followed by similar levels of flooding in the following days, with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/17/venice-floods-call-for-help-damages-fundraise">80% of dwellings flooded and entire neighbourhoods submerged</a>. On November 14, the Italian government declared a state of emergency and allocated emergency funds of 20 million euros to dealing with the flooding.</p>
<p>On November 15, Luigi Brugnaro, the mayor of Venice, launched a public fundraising campaign to preserve the city, the “pride of Italy and international heritage”, by <a href="https://www.wantedinmilan.com/news/venice-floods-how-to-donate-to-relief-efforts.html">opening a bank account</a> to which anyone can send a transfer. Other initiatives were also established: Italian embassies announced a call for donations from <a href="https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2019/11/19/Russian-donor-Venice/2198799">foreign donors</a>, La Scala of Milan rallied to protect La Fenice, and various committees devoted to preserving Venice launched their own campaigns.</p>
<p>While the damages are estimated at around 1 billion euros, the funds collected are far from matching that figure. At best, only a few million euros have been raised, though it is difficult to know the exact figures. Why? Why were there unprecedented donations for Notre-Dame, yet we let Venice drown?</p>
<h2>Notre-Dame, an unforeseeable disaster</h2>
<p>The two events both involve internationally renowned “stars” of cultural heritage that now find themselves in dire straits. In both cases, the disaster was nor humanitarian nor social. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverwilliams1/2019/04/17/why-notre-dame-donations-are-provoking-a-backlash-against-billionaires/">Many have</a> critiqued the irony of donors’ lack of empathy regarding societal problems and the lack of attention given to other historical monuments that crumble in silence.</p>
<p>Notre-Dame and Venice are both symbols of a collective identity that now find themselves at risk. The danger that threatens them can substantially impact those that see a part of themselves in these symbols. Angelo Miglietta, cultural management professor at IULM in Milan, said the following about the Venice floods: “It gives the impression of decline, with the risk of losing our cultural heritage”.</p>
<p>The two disasters are very different. Notre-Dame is a unique monument, the damage to which is both clearly visible and meticulously recorded. The striking images of the fire ravaging the roof and the fall of the spire were powerful, dramatic and unforgettable.</p>
<p>In Venice, the damage affects the whole city: monuments, yes, but also run-of-the-mill establishments like stores, dwellings and roads. While the devastation of Notre-Dame took the world by surprise, that of the city of the Doges was announced. While the Catholic church and heritage experts regularly warned about the poor state of churches in France, a fire of such size was unpredictable.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307791/original/file-20191218-11946-1qqrbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307791/original/file-20191218-11946-1qqrbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307791/original/file-20191218-11946-1qqrbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307791/original/file-20191218-11946-1qqrbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307791/original/file-20191218-11946-1qqrbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307791/original/file-20191218-11946-1qqrbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307791/original/file-20191218-11946-1qqrbvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The destruction of <em>acqua alta</em> of last November directly impacted the habitants and merchants of Venice, unlike the fire of Notre-Dame.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ihor Serdyukov/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the time, many theories circulated about the cause of the Notre-Dame fire: was it a terrorist attack, human error, an electrical issue? The Venice floods, however, are far from a new problem. Given its unique geographical position, the city has previously been subject to <em>acqua alta</em> (high water) episodes and exceptionally strong tides, a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-blamed-for-higher-tides-creating-uncertainty-for-venices-canals-60-minutes-2020-01-12/">problem amplified by climate change</a>. Devastating natural disasters are not rare in Italy and regularly result in the declaration of a state of emergency.</p>
<p>According to Sara Berloto, a philanthropy researcher at Bocconi University in Milan:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The Venice floods were seen as a natural disaster; the Italians are used to that. Notre-Dame, on the other hand, was seen as a man-made drama”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Omar Bortolazzi, who watched both events from afar in Dubai, where he is a professor of international relations, stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“For me, the Venice drama was less traumatic than that of Notre-Dame. The fire was an unprecedented event. For Venice, the floods have a bit of déjà-vu about them and are less startling. It seems like a natural disaster that could have been better handled and perhaps even partially avoided.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Thus, the circumstances of the Venice floods seem to lend themselves less easily to calls for generosity…</p>
<h2>Incomparable fundraising tools</h2>
<p>The meagre results of the Venice fundraising campaign also have another explanation: strategic errors in how funds were raised. The Italian authorities were slow to react, while Macron declared a national campaign as soon as the fire occurred.</p>
<p>According to Antoine Martel, director of the iRaiser platform used by three of the four main groups raising funds for Notre-Dame, reactivity is key: “68% of individual donations were collected in the 48 hours following the fire. One emergency follows another. If you miss the media window, it’s over.”</p>
<p>Another point to consider is the difference in payment methods. For Notre-Dame, secure online donation platforms were in place the following morning, allowing individuals to donate quickly and easily from their computer or smartphone.</p>
<p>For Venice, donors could send a transfer to a bank account created for the occasion by city council. This solution that lacks flexibility, transparency and security, and is complicated by the fact that foreign transfers involve additional fees. The city also set up a campaign to <a href="https://www.wantedinmilan.com/news/venice-floods-how-to-donate-to-relief-efforts.html">donate by text</a> but donations were capped at 2 euros per text.</p>
<p>In the end, the scattered nature of the fundraising initiatives has been detrimental to Venice. According to Angelo Miglietta:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There was a total lack of coordination and governance on the subject. The big donors and enterprises are more inclined to give large sums in the presence of clearly identified representatives with a clear message.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Notre-Dame, each of the four private organizations that launched a campaign is a recognized entity with public, verifiable accounts, who were supported by the government immediately after the disaster.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307864/original/file-20191219-11900-1o4de7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307864/original/file-20191219-11900-1o4de7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307864/original/file-20191219-11900-1o4de7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307864/original/file-20191219-11900-1o4de7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307864/original/file-20191219-11900-1o4de7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307864/original/file-20191219-11900-1o4de7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307864/original/file-20191219-11900-1o4de7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The coordination between the different entities involved was one of the explanations for the impressive fundraising effort after the Notre-Dame fire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Loic Salan/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other than the different strategies, one last element explains the gap between the funds raised: the political handling of the disaster and the responsibilities of the State and local communities. In front of the still-smoking site, when Emmanuel Macron appealed to the French to rebuild Notre-Dame, he did so in front of Michel Aupetit, the archbishop of Paris; Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris; and Franck Riester, the minister of culture.</p>
<h2>Political tension</h2>
<p>While the government was originally overtaken by private entities in raising money, it quickly got the upper hand by coordinating a national campaign and then supervising the cathedral’s reconstruction project, handed over to an ad-hoc public organization created on July 29. Despite some issues behind the scenes, the response fit the circumstances.</p>
<p>In Italy, the national disaster occurred in a complex political context, where the Italian government is emerging from a major political crisis. The tensions between the central government and that of the Veneto region, which has strong separatist tendencies, did not facilitate a unified and coordinated political approach.</p>
<p>Further, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.fr/us/venice-mose-flood-gates-storms-2018-11">disastrous management of the Moses project</a>, which was supposed to protect Venice from high tides with a system of dykes, and has already cost almost 6 billion euros, experienced significant delays due to fraud involving the former mayor of Venice.</p>
<p>The system was supposed to launch in 2016, but now will not be operational until 2021. The November 2019 <em>acqua alta</em> also seems to have been met with “disillusioned cynicism” from the population, according to Omar Bortolazzi. The Italian public actors do not possess the legitimacy to encourage individuals and companies to act; according to Omar Bortolazzi, “resentment has taken precedence over the desire to donate”.</p>
<p>Despite the difference in generosity, the Notre-Dame and Venice dramas have one last thing in common: the criticisms mingled in with the sadness. While in France, these criticisms mainly targeted the major donors, and in Italy, they focused on how public power was managed, both situations show that the two monuments represent a collective identity of their respective country and have intensified already-present tensions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130733/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>More than 1 billion euros were donated after Paris’ cathedral was grievously damaged by fire in April. By comparison, just a few million euros were given after catastrophic flooding in Cité des Doges.Arthur Gautier, Professeur, Directeur exécutif de la Chaire Philanthropie, ESSEC Éléonore Delanoë, Chargée de recherche, ESSEC Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1158982019-05-24T10:44:30Z2019-05-24T10:44:30Z‘World Heritage’ site selection is Eurocentric – and that shapes which historic places get love and money<p>The April 2019 fire that engulfed France’s Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris, led to an outpouring of grief and introspection. </p>
<p>Historians explained how the 800-year-old church had <a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dame-how-christs-crown-of-thorns-has-survived-crusades-political-upheaval-and-a-fire-but-only-just-115731">survived political upheaval</a>. Theologians examined <a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dame-the-public-and-private-lives-of-frances-spiritual-home-115734">its “secret life” and symbolism</a> and architects recounted <a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dames-history-is-9-centuries-of-change-renovation-and-renewal-115606">its structural changes through the centuries</a>. </p>
<p>But not all cultural landmarks – no matter how beautiful or inspiring – similarly tug at the heartstrings of people worldwide. On the same day Notre Dame burned, online commentators observed, flames also consumed part of the <a href="https://badgerherald.com/opinion/2019/04/17/social-media-is-ablaze-about-notre-dame-but-silent-about-destruction-of-mosques-black-churches/">1,000-year-old Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem</a>. </p>
<p>The world’s response: virtual silence. </p>
<p>My research on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=m5h-3acAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">UNESCO World Heritage sites</a> sheds light on why some cultural relics are beloved, while other splendid monuments remain relatively unknown.</p>
<h2>UNESCO World Heritage</h2>
<p>Since 1972 the <a href="https://en.unesco.org">United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization</a> has kept a <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/">list</a> of places revered for their “outstanding universal value.”</p>
<p>Famous examples include the Sydney Opera House, in Australia, the Incan city of Machu Picchu, in Peru, and Italy’s Villa Romana.</p>
<p>Inclusion on UNESCO’s World Heritage list, which recognizes both <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/about/">natural and human-built</a> places, brings publicity and increased tourism. It also comes with financial, scientific, educational and cultural assistance to help countries conserve their World Heritage sites. </p>
<p>The 193 countries that signed the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/conventiontext/">1972 UN agreement</a> that gave UNESCO this responsibility have committed not to endanger, directly or indirectly, their own heritage sites or those of another nation. </p>
<p>The French scholar Anne Gombault believes that Notre Dame stirs global fervor, in part, because it is <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/documents/111415">a UNESCO World Heritage Site</a>. </p>
<p>“World Heritage Sites arouse emotions and emotions reveal shared values,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dame-de-paris-from-searing-emotion-to-the-future-rebirth-of-a-world-heritage-site-115612">she wrote in The Conversation</a> on April 16, 2019. “Such emotions were on the faces of all those gathered in front of Notre Dame” as it burned, and in “the flood of heartfelt sentiments on social networks,” she added. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/about/">UNESCO’s website</a>, World Heritage sites “belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located.”</p>
<p>In practice, though, what is considered worthy of World Heritage recognition is not equally distributed across countries. According to my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=m5h-3acAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">research</a>, UNESCO disproportionately reveres the cultural legacies of former European empires. </p>
<p>My 2014 <a href="https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0304422X1400028X?token=633FA190D6E10021C7FDA7F5C82130BEFE676CF44D9B2249E340E623B14DF82A50B60A24B285D8C90684E2B360DD8474">analysis of UNESCO World Heritage sites</a> found that Italy and Spain had 114 of UNESCO’s 695 designated cultural sites. That’s two relatively small European countries – home to just over 1% of the world’s population – with almost 9% of its sites of “outstanding universal value.” </p>
<p>In comparison, 25 countries – including the Dominican Republic, Papua New Guinea, and Mongolia – have just one UNESCO cultural site each. Ireland, Saudi Arabia and 16 other countries have two each. Seven countries, among them Jamaica and Moldova, have no UNESCO-designated sites at all. </p>
<p>Even UNESCO-designated sites located outside of Italy, France and Spain reflect a preference for these countries’ grand imperial histories. </p>
<p>Excluding cultural sites located within France, Greece, Italy and Spain, I analyzed the descriptions of the remaining 536 sites for references to Spanish, French and Italian or Greco-Roman influence. I searched for words like “Roman,” “Baroque,” “Classical,” “Gothic” and other terms commonly used to describe historical Western European architectural styles. </p>
<p>I found that 31% of UNESCO-designated cultural sites not located in Italy were celebrated for their Italian influence, including 50 of Eastern Europe’s 79 designated sites. Another 23 Eastern European UNESCO sites boasted French influence. </p>
<p>That means all but six of Eastern Europe’s UNESCO-designated cultural monuments are celebrated for their Western Europeanness.</p>
<p>Similarly, almost half of Latin America’s 77 cultural World Heritage sites are from the Spanish colonial era, including the historic downtowns of Mexico City, Havana and Antigua, Guatemala.</p>
<h2>How UNESCO nominations work</h2>
<p>Today there are 845 cultural sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List – nearly 200 more than in 2014, when I did my original analysis. Western Europe still dominates the map.</p>
<p><iframe id="tjStw" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/tjStw/6/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>One reason for this apparent bias may be exhaustive nature of UNESCO’s nomination process. </p>
<p>To apply for World Heritage designation, countries <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/nominations/">nominate</a> sites of “outstanding universal value” that meet at least <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria/">one of 10 criteria</a>. </p>
<p>For cultural sites, these criteria include being “a masterpiece of human creative genius” and bearing an “exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared.” </p>
<p>UNESCO natural heritage sites, which are much more evenly distributed across the globe, must either contain “superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance” or reveal <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria/">meaningful interactions between nature and humans</a>.</p>
<p>The nominating government then compiles an extensive dossier on the proposed site, which may include hundreds of pages of history, maps, photos, protection plans and scientific or cultural analysis. </p>
<p>This is evaluated by an international UNESCO advisory board, whose members will visit the site. Their recommendation goes to an executive UNESCO committee that makes the final decision. </p>
<p>This laborious process inevitably favors governments with more administrative, academic and financial resources. </p>
<p>And the nomination process is only getting more elaborate: Sociologists Vaughn Schmutz and Michael Elliot <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0020715217703778">analyzed all UNESCO cultural site applications</a> from 1980 to 2010 and found that over the years they grew longer and included more scientific language.</p>
<h2>What ‘oustanding’ means</h2>
<p>According to archaeologist Henry Creere, who once <a href="http://icahm.icomos.org/cleere/">served on a World Heritage advisory board</a>, UNESCO’s own selection process is also inherently “Western-oriented.”</p>
<p>“It operates in accordance with an aesthetic and historical perspective that is grounded in European culture,” he <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1179/135050396793139042?needAccess=true">wrote</a> in 1996. </p>
<p>This perceived bias may have led Asian, Latin American and African governments to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304422X12000204">strategically select</a> cultural relics that date from their colonial occupation – rather than native monuments of the pre-colonial era – because they suspect such places most closely align with UNESCO’s vision.</p>
<p>UNESCO’s European bias is probably not intentional. Nonetheless, it has serious implications for the future of world heritage.</p>
<p>Deep universal affection for Notre Dame has translated into hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to help <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/world/rebuilding-notre-dame/?utm_term=.06fae7ed5d76">rebuild the beloved cathedral</a>. </p>
<p>When the Gate of Ishtar, one of few remaining ruins from the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150302-ancient-babylons-greatest-wonder">ancient city of Babylon</a>, was destroyed in 2003 during the Iraq War, <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/PDF/BabylonReport04.pdf">archaeologists</a> and the <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1287/">United Nations</a> expressed grave concern. But there was no global outpouring of grief or donor dollars.</p>
<p>UNESCO protections may not have saved this ancient city from the wrath of the Iraq War. But, certainly, hundreds of millions of dollars and a global fan base might have helped.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Reyes has received fellowships, awards and/or grants from the American Association of University Women, National Science Foundation, American Sociological Association, Institute of International Education, Law and Society Association, National Women’s Studies Association, Princeton University, University of California, Riverside and National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan</span></em></p>A scholar analyzed data about UNESCO World Heritage sites to explain why European cultural relics like Notre Dame are so beloved, while splendid monuments elsewhere remain relatively unknown.Victoria Reyes, Assistant Professor, University of California, RiversideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1160232019-05-22T09:24:55Z2019-05-22T09:24:55ZPhilanthropy’s bad reputation could put big donors off giving – here’s why it matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275662/original/file-20190521-23826-vkpmnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the wake of the Notre Dame fire, critics argue the money donated to the Paris cathedral would have been better directed elsewhere.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Within hours of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, half a billion Euros had been raised in donations by leading French business people and their families to help pay for its reconstruction.</p>
<p>The speed with which such enormous sums could be raised kicked off a <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/04/20/yellow-vest-protesters-say-notre-dame-donations-better-spent-fighting-poverty/">global discussion</a> about the rights and wrongs of that philanthropic reaction, largely focused on whether a building, however important, should be prioritised over the needs of the poor in Paris and beyond. </p>
<p>But the philanthropic response to the Notre Dame fire also highlighted a less discussed issue: how major donors are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/18/billionaires-donations-notre-dame-france-inequality">negatively depicted</a> in media coverage. And the impact this might have on the willingness of private philanthropists to step forward in future. </p>
<h2>‘Billionaire backers’</h2>
<p>In countries with a <a href="https://www.giarts.org/sites/default/files/Underdeveloped-National-Study-of-Challenges-Facing-Nonprofit-Fundraising.pdf">stronger culture of philanthropy</a>, notably the US, big giving is presented in a more positive and aspirational light. But historic and contemporary analysis of UK newspapers, <a href="https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/events/event/?eventid=91598">recently presented at the University of Liverpool</a>, shows a sustained pattern of making philanthropy problematic.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/events/event/?eventid=91598">Research</a> conducted in collobration with my University of Kent colleague Hugh Cunningham, finds that adjectives used to describe philanthropists in The Times in the 19th-century include “puffing”, “pseudo”, “sham”, “false” and “unscrupulous”. The 21st-century adjectival equivalents include “ruthless”, “tax-ruse”, “sinister”, “status-seeking” and “self-righteous”. The consistency over time shows that wealth and power is always an uneasy combination, even when wielded for good. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/opinion/sunday/wealth-philanthropy-fake-change.html">Debates are ongoing</a> about the extent to which rich donors are complicit in the structures that generate both the available wealth that makes philanthropy possible, and the existence of social and environmental problems that make philanthropy necessary. But such debates focus only on the alleged culpability of those who give, while non-givers – choosing mega-yachts over mega-donations – are curiously absent from the discussion. </p>
<p>Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy, the world’s leading luxury products group, was <a href="https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/luxury-fashion-companies-charitable-donations">reported to have told</a> the latest shareholder’s meeting: “It’s pretty dismaying to see that in France you are criticised even for doing something for the general interest.” He might also have added: where’s the criticism of those who kept their heads below the philanthropic parapet?</p>
<h2>Global giving</h2>
<p>In the absence of a centralised database of wealthy people who could give but don’t, the Forbes list of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/#3246e2fe251c">2,153 global billionaires</a> comes in pretty handy. As of May 2019, there are 191 signatories to <a href="https://givingpledge.org/">The Giving Pledge</a>. This is a public commitment by billionaires to give away at least half of their wealth either during their lifetime or in their will. This means that just under 9% of global billionaires are serious philanthropists. So why all the focus on their motives and actions, rather than the other 91%?</p>
<p>The most famous names on the global billionaire list who have also signed the Giving Pledge are Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Both give via the <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org">Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation</a>, whose biggest grants are focused on eradicating diseases that kill children in poor countries. A major initiative involves joining forces with the World Health Organisation to try to eradicate polio. After US$11 billion of funding – including US$3 billion from the Gates Foundation – worldwide <a href="http://polioeradication.org">cases of polio have been cut by 99.9%</a>. In 1988, 1,000 children a day were paralysed by polio, but 30 years later, after 2.5 billion children have had the vaccine, polio is now virtually eliminated. </p>
<p>Whatever benefits Gates and Buffett gain from their philanthropy, such as enhanced reputations or access to elite networks, the good achieved for wider society is clear. And yet this goes remarkably unnoticed in public discussions about philanthropy. </p>
<p>Indeed, when Warren Buffett first joined forces with the Gates’ in 2006 – because he believed collaboration was more efficient and effective than establishing an eponymous foundation – the UK media reaction was far more muted, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/jun/28/comment.policy">one report in The Guardian</a> which began: “When the world’s second-richest man gives most of his money to the world’s richest man we do well to count our spoons.” That evocative phrase, attributed to Samuel Johnson in the 18th century, means to make sure that nothing has been stolen by suspicious house guests. </p>
<h2>Under suspicion</h2>
<p>The commonplace use of words that raise suspicion about big donors highlights the reputational problem faced by philanthropists today. But there’s also a potential problem for the rest of us. As seen in the aftermath of the fire at Notre Dame, when unpredictable events occur, individuals can make large amounts of funding available more quickly than either the state or the private sector. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/philanthropy/whatwedo/charityresearch/couttsmilliondonor.html">My ongoing research</a> is focused on understanding why philanthropy has an image problem. I have been interviewing rich donors for over a decade and many are confused and hurt by the widespread suspicions about their motives. In another <a href="https://theresalloyd.co.uk/publication/why-rich-people-give-2004/">UK study of rich donors</a>, one asks: “Why are the media nasty? They don’t do good news, they are snide and they pander to jealousy.” Another notes: “I am afraid of the media, it’s always negative…They have great power and there’s no right of reply.”</p>
<p>Philanthropy should, of course, be scrutinised as well as celebrated, but as our study of media coverage shows, ill-chosen words can not only hurt the donors but also possibly put them off donating again – and helping those in need – in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116023/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Breeze has received funding from Pears Foundation and The Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>Those who don’t give often face less media scrutiny.Beth Breeze, Director, Centre for Philanthropy, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1166372019-05-19T19:41:00Z2019-05-19T19:41:00ZNotre d'Amazon: What if we transformed Notre Dame into a giant warehouse?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272810/original/file-20190506-103075-vnk2fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C32%2C1000%2C748&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Notre-Dame is dead, long live "Notre-d'Amazon"!</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gilmanshin/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After the tragic fire at Notre Dame cathedral, a debate arose over what should be done with the grievously damaged cathedral. The debate has raged between the traditionalists, who have already started <a href="https://www.europe1.fr/societe/notre-dame-de-paris-un-exploitant-forestier-inquiet-du-stock-de-chene-disponible-pour-la-reconstruire-3892949">stockpiling wood</a> to reproduce the roof structure faithfully, and the modernists who, claiming to follow in the footsteps of architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, have made numerous <a href="http://www.leparisien.fr/paris-75/notre-dame-les-dix-projets-fous-pour-la-cathedrale-de-demain-03-05-2019-8064864.php">radical proposals</a>, from a crystal spire to a rooftop garden.</p>
<p>Of course, a few have wondered whether it would not be better to <a href="http://www.slate.fr/story/175854/ne-pas-reconstruire-notre-dame-de-paris">leave the cathedral as it is</a>, and devote the 1 billion euros of donations to other causes. But nobody has gone as far as suggesting another use for the building. This is what I propose.</p>
<h2>Faith, location, sustainability</h2>
<p>Of course, for any future use to be acceptable, it must respect a number of conditions. We cannot do what we like with Notre Dame and with its ancient stones. For example, it would be unthinkable to transform it into, say, a nightclub or a Jeff Koons sculpture.</p>
<p>A new use would have no chance of being accepted unless it satisfied three conditions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Conform to the tradition of deep faith that Notre Dame represents;</p></li>
<li><p>Be appropriate for the central location of the former cathedral;</p></li>
<li><p>Promote sustainable development.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>One solution that satisfies all these conditions would be to transform the cathedral into a gigantic warehouse to serve the whole of Paris. It could be called “Notre d'Amazon”, in homage to Jeff Bezos’ firm, with the largest market valuation in the world and the largest, most cutting-edge warehouses in existence.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dAXdeqcHBp4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>I can already hear the cries of outrage by the faithful, denouncing any such idea as a sacrilege. What, transform a place of worship into a vulgar warehouse and rename it after an American firm? </p>
<p>I would remind them that there are many supporting examples in history – for example, after the French Revolution, many churches were transformed into warehouses. One was <a href="https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01395041/document">Saint Elisabeth of Hungary</a> in Paris’s 3rd Arrondissement, which served as a flour warehouse in the 19th century. </p>
<p>Above all, I would ask those who object to my proposition and to consider objectively whether such a use satisfies the three conditions above. The answer “yes” appears to be undeniable.</p>
<h2>Consumerist worship</h2>
<p>First, religion. At a time when the majority of French citizens are agnostics or atheists, people are more likely to believe in <a href="http://www.marketing-professionnel.fr/parole-expert/consommation-alienation-liberation-religion-spiritualite-201605.html">consumerism</a> than in Catholicism. As numerous sociologists and marketers since Baudrillard have written, what unites us today, what makes our society, is consumption: the products we buy, the brands we love, the tribes of consumers to which we belong. And where do today’s consumers go to worship? They no longer go to the market, or the department store, or the mall, which are all outdated. They go to the warehouse.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271008/original/file-20190425-121237-1a590hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271008/original/file-20190425-121237-1a590hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271008/original/file-20190425-121237-1a590hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271008/original/file-20190425-121237-1a590hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271008/original/file-20190425-121237-1a590hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271008/original/file-20190425-121237-1a590hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271008/original/file-20190425-121237-1a590hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ikea can be considered more as a warehouse more than a shop.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tooykrub/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When we order an endless array of products with a single click on Internet, it is from a warehouse that they flow ever faster into our homes. Given the rising demand, the warehouse is the subject of a new <a href="https://blog.delaplace.pro/les-10-plus-grands-entrepots-du-monde/">race toward gigantism</a>, just as cathedrals were in their time. Firms want ever bigger, taller, more automated warehouses. One of the temples of modern consumerism, the Ikea store, is in fact nothing but a warehouse from which the customers collect their products directly.</p>
<h2>Centrality, sustainability</h2>
<p>Next, geography. Notre Dame cathedral is located in the heart of Paris. Over the centuries the city developed in concentric circles around the cathedral, regularly breaking through fortifications that only briefly marked the city’s limits. Such a location is ideal for establishing a warehouse, because it stands at the epicentre of the delivery locations of Paris. This minimises the distance to customers, reducing delivery time and cost. Our ancestors made no mistakes on this point, since the area in which Notre Dame was built was originally a port, supplying Paris with goods arriving via the Seine river.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270719/original/file-20190424-121254-ouo5un.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270719/original/file-20190424-121254-ouo5un.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270719/original/file-20190424-121254-ouo5un.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270719/original/file-20190424-121254-ouo5un.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270719/original/file-20190424-121254-ouo5un.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270719/original/file-20190424-121254-ouo5un.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270719/original/file-20190424-121254-ouo5un.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270719/original/file-20190424-121254-ouo5un.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The bridges and ports of Paris around 1000 AD.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://paris-atlas-historique.fr/15.html">L'Atlas historique de Paris.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, sustainable development. To put it mildly, Notre Dame’s carbon footprint is a problem. I do not mean the candles, which in environmental terms are a drop in the bucket, but the impact of the millions of tourists coming to Paris to visit the cathedral every year. Pouring into Paris via low-cost flights, such visitors are exacerbating global warming with all the jet fuel required to bring them here.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274935/original/file-20190516-69209-1tbghxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274935/original/file-20190516-69209-1tbghxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274935/original/file-20190516-69209-1tbghxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274935/original/file-20190516-69209-1tbghxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274935/original/file-20190516-69209-1tbghxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274935/original/file-20190516-69209-1tbghxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274935/original/file-20190516-69209-1tbghxc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The warehouse, the key to grouping and optimising deliveries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">L.J. Krajewski, L.P. Ritzman, M.K. Malhotra, _Operations Management Process and Supply Chain_ (Pearson, 2007).</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Beyond significantly cutting down on flights into the Paris region, the transformation of Notre Dame into a warehouse would help to pool deliveries, reducing the number of trucks in the city by nearly 40% and also the city’s carbon footprint. In practical terms, the new warehouse would be supplied by river barges, a bulk-transportation mode with low environmental impact. At the warehouse, the goods received in bulk would be sorted and customer orders prepared. Finally, it would be easy to deliver the orders to Parisians using light vehicles rather than trucks.</p>
<h2>Disappearance of logistics infrastructure in Paris</h2>
<p>The ironic tone of this article will have escaped no one’s attention, and to be honest, I have no thought of transforming Notre Dame into a warehouse. Yet far from being a joke, this article aims to raise a serious, strategic question: that of the place of logistics infrastructure in Paris and cities. It is self-evident that Paris no longer has any location from where bulk goods transport could be organised.</p>
<p>The quays of the River Seine, which in the 18th century were ports receiving bulk merchandise? Pedestrianised. The Halles, the former Paris wholesale market? Moved to Rungis, from where thousands of trucks leave every day to supply Paris. The city’s railway stations, which used to have freight areas? Handed over to passenger use. The inner-city warehouses such as Bercy? Transformed into parks, offices or commercial areas. The production areas where bulk merchandise arrived? Refurbished as cultural areas, like La Villette, formerly a <a href="https://en.lavillette.com/page/history-heritage_a175/1">livestock market and slaughterhouse</a>. The list goes on.</p>
<h2>Catastrophic situation</h2>
<p>With all the infrastructure gone that once enabled merchandise to be brought into Paris, the situation is catastrophic. Goods are now delivered to Paris in trucks (generally half empty) from warehouses located ever further out in the suburbs. This situation has a range of negative impacts, including noise and air pollution, environmental damage and respiratory diseases. With the upcoming local elections in Paris, it would be useful for the candidates to think carefully about how, given exorbitant Parisian property prices, areas in the city can be dedicated to logistics.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270722/original/file-20190424-121233-ox1422.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270722/original/file-20190424-121233-ox1422.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270722/original/file-20190424-121233-ox1422.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270722/original/file-20190424-121233-ox1422.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270722/original/file-20190424-121233-ox1422.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270722/original/file-20190424-121233-ox1422.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270722/original/file-20190424-121233-ox1422.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270722/original/file-20190424-121233-ox1422.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New warehouses in the Paris region (1980-2009).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-espace-geographique-2012-3-page-236.htm">Antoine Frémont</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To stimulate the imagination of the politicians, my proposal would be to launch another competition alongside the one concerning the restoration of Notre Dame, this one titled “The Logistics of Paris”. Let us ask architects, urban planners, distributors, service providers and infrastructure experts to reflect about innovative ways to organise logistics in Greater Paris. Recent projects have come to fruition, such as the <a href="https://www.lejournaldugrandparis.fr/chapelle-international-inauguration-dun-hotel-logistique-iconique/">Hôtel logistique de la Chapelle</a>. But we need to go further, and imagine a logistical revolution for Paris, like when Baron Haussmann revolutionised the city’s street plan in the 1800s. It’s time to think big.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116637/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aurélien Rouquet ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Over the last 50 years, the warehouse infrastructure of Paris has been decimated. In the wake of the Notre Dame fire, transforming the cathedral into a warehouse isn’t as far-fetched as it might seem.Aurélien Rouquet, Professeur de logistique et supply chain, Neoma Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1157392019-05-05T19:35:36Z2019-05-05T19:35:36ZThe profane and the sacred: why luxury firms rushed to support Notre-Dame<p>The April 2019 fire at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dame-de-paris-from-searing-emotion-to-the-future-rebirth-of-a-world-heritage-site-115612">Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral</a> came as an immense shock to the people of France, as well as throughout Europe and in countries across the world.</p>
<p>Even while the fire was still smoldering, a spontaneous effort to resist the blow dealt by fate quickly took hold. In three days, more than <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2019/04/18/deja-850-millions-d-euros-de-dons-promis-pour-la-reconstruction-de-notre-dame_5452116_3224.html">850 million euros</a> were pledged. Some of the first were three big names of France’s luxury industry, the Pinault, Arnault, and Bettencourt families, whose Kering, LVMH and l’Oréal groups dominate the global market – the amounts pledged by each family were in the hundreds of millions of euros. The movement was also reflective of the symbolic significance of a fire that came close to reducing the edifice to ashes – an edifice which alone embodies the entire history of France and is an integral part of European heritage.</p>
<h2>Rich in controversy</h2>
<p>So why has the world of luxury been leading the drive to donate in order to rebuild Notre-Dame? Given the likely cost of the restoration work, the pledges of support are certainly welcome, but the context in France is complex, to say the least: the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-frances-gilets-jaunes-protesters-are-so-angry-108100">“gilets jaunes” movement</a> erupted in late 2018 and has grown increasingly angry, with many of the demands centring on rising inequality and the imbalance between Paris and “forgotten” rural regions. Europe’s migrant crisis continues, as does rise in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Paris_homeless">homelessness in big cities like Paris</a>. Claims that the wealthy donors were motivated more out of a hunger for positive press or a desire for tax breaks immediately surfaced. “The simplest thing would be for them to pay their taxes”, said the <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2019/04/17/incendie-de-notre-dame-lancement-d-un-concours-international-d-architectes-pour-la-fleche_5451615_823448.html">senator Esther Benbassa</a>, a member of France’s Green Party.</p>
<p>Such explanations are not enough in themselves, assuming they have any basis at all – after all, two of the biggest donors, the Pinault and Arnault families, stated that they were already at the limit for charitable tax deductions and so would be <a href="http://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/franck-riester-les-dons-iront-a-notre-dame-pas-a-autre-chose-01-05-2019-8064177.php">giving the funds outright</a>.</p>
<p>But whatever the specifics, questioning why luxury firms would give such immense sums overlooks the deep historical roots of the industry.</p>
<h2>From the sacred to the profane</h2>
<p>While luxury firms may now be seen as the epitome of worldly excellence, luxury started out in the pursuit of the sacred. Since time immemorial, the most skilled artisans have invented and crafted exceptional goods out of the most valuable materials, worked on for countless hours, as priceless offerings to the Gods, whether to win them over before a battle, thank them for a victory, or to celebrate a good harvest. A recent example is the grave of a Celtic prince, unearthed in 2015 in Lavau, a town just a few hours south of Paris, which contained a <a href="https://www.livescience.com/50069-celtic-prince-tomb-uncovered.html">gold-tipped drinking vessel</a>. The immense cost of such goods is precisely why they were offered, in the literal sense of <em>sacri-fice</em> (“the act which makes holy”).</p>
<p>This explains in part why temples were covered with gold, why churches were adorned with the most beautiful artifacts. After the gods came the demigods, the kings and the aristocrats who would deny themselves nothing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269850/original/file-20190417-139120-awtnlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269850/original/file-20190417-139120-awtnlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269850/original/file-20190417-139120-awtnlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269850/original/file-20190417-139120-awtnlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269850/original/file-20190417-139120-awtnlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269850/original/file-20190417-139120-awtnlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269850/original/file-20190417-139120-awtnlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At the origins of luxury, we find the labour force mobilized for religious reasons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jorisvo/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The French Revolution of 1789 marked the end of privileges of birth, but not the end of the right to the beautiful and the sublime by virtue of wealth – in other words, by virtue of one’s wealth and good fortune. Restorations and republics came and went, but luxury remained. The communist revolutions in Russia and China began by ostensibly eliminating inequalities, but they too eventually gave free rein to the process of liberalisation that re-created the inequalities they’d once banished.</p>
<p>Luxury feeds on inequality. Whatever the source of their wealth, legitimate or otherwise, rising social classes throughout the world have always sought to have their new-found wealth and status recognised. Hence the <a href="https://altagamma.it/media/source/WORLDWIDE%20LUXURY%20MARKET%20MONITOR_BAIN.pdf">extraordinary growth of the luxury industry today</a>.</p>
<p>While the sustained growth of the industry is the result of the emergence of successive waves of <em>nouveaux riches</em>, first from Japan, then from Russia and finally China today, to view luxury consumption merely as the expression of an interest in appearance and ostentation would be a mistake. While this may be true at the initial stage of their wealth, customers can come to see the cultural and sacred dimension of the ornate goods they purchase at such great expense. The paradox of luxury is that as well as raising the standing of buyers in the eyes of others, it elevates the customer. In the best of cases, he or she wears an incomparable item that captures the spirituality and living culture of a country, its history and its art, and rises above the mere material.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269848/original/file-20190417-139110-1qrlsks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269848/original/file-20190417-139110-1qrlsks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269848/original/file-20190417-139110-1qrlsks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269848/original/file-20190417-139110-1qrlsks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269848/original/file-20190417-139110-1qrlsks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269848/original/file-20190417-139110-1qrlsks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269848/original/file-20190417-139110-1qrlsks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris was inaugurated in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oliverouge 3/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Luxury sees space, history and blood as the very foundations of its standing and quest for supremacy. Hence the importance of “made in” used by <a href="https://theconversation.com/hermes-behind-the-scenes-of-the-french-luxury-gem-80551">brands such as Hermès</a>, the cult of origins and of the legacy of designers such as <a href="http://theconversation.com/what-karl-lagerfeld-brought-to-the-fashion-of-today-and-tomorrow-112329">Karl Lagerfeld</a>. Longevity is precisely what lies at the heart of why luxury goods firms refuse to see themselves as makers of ordinary objects.</p>
<p>In its heart, the luxury industry itself aspires to be sacred. After all, luxury also has its own rituals, clerics and ranks. Its brands speak of their “icons” and build cathedrals in capitals throughout the world dedicated to the splendour of the brand and to developing the community of believers. It is thus easy to understand the affinity between the industry and Notre Dame, the legacy of a history that goes well beyond France, the embodiment of the sacred for eight centuries.</p>
<h2>The families, not the brands</h2>
<p>In the past, the patrician families of Florence and Venice sought to promote the arts, a role later performed by monarchs. Then the state became the custodian of culture by developing museums, art schools and academies. But in an era of fiscal limitations, nation-states cannot do everything, and with the means and the know-how, the luxury industry has become a key patron of the arts. Hence the proliferation of collaborations with contemporary artists, the sponsorship of spectacular exhibitions dedicated to fashion designers such as <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/dior-designer-of-dreams">Christian Dior</a>, and the creation of museums such as the Louis Vuitton Foundation. What this does is to change our perception of luxury items as products derived from art. It thus stands to reason that the major luxury brands should immediately run to the rescue of Notre-Dame, an immensely important symbol of history and culture at the heart of Paris.</p>
<p>It is worth emphasising that the donations made by the Pinault, Arnault and Bettencourt families were made through their foundations rather than their their well-known brands. After all, the symbolic impact would have been quite different. To showcase a brand would be to do business, to reintroduce the merchants in the Temple at a time when the edifice itself was fragile and when any notion of short-term interest needed to be set aside. Above all, that would have been to depart from the sacred.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115739/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean-Noël Kapferer ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The biggest names in France’s luxury industry have given millions of euros to help rebuild Notre Dame. Questioning why they would do so overlooks the deep historical and religious roots of the industry.Jean-Noël Kapferer, Professeur Senior, INSEEC Grande ÉcoleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1159302019-05-01T09:35:32Z2019-05-01T09:35:32ZNotre Dame should not be restored – let it stand as a symbol of a flawed way of life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271531/original/file-20190429-194603-2167xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C390%2C3506%2C2318&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Notre Dame circa 1475.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anjou_paris.jpg">Master of Anthony of Burgundy/Public domain</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the night that Notre Dame was devastated in a fire, most people have assumed that the Gothic cathedral at the centre of Paris should be <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a27165076/rebuilding-notre-dame/">lovingly restored</a> – and more than a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e952eafa-61d2-11e9-a27a-fdd51850994c">billion euros</a> have been pledged towards restoration. </p>
<p>Experts have estimated that the work would take between <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/notre-dame-cathedral-rebuild-in-paris-could-take-40-years/">20 and 40 years</a> – by which time the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/summary-for-policy-makers">UN’s climate agency</a> estimates that we will have long <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-protesters-should-be-wary-of-12-years-to-climate-breakdown-rhetoric-115489">exceeded</a> dangerous levels of global warming, if current levels of emissions <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-the-ipcc-1-5c-report-expanded-the-carbon-budget">continue</a>.</p>
<p>On the same day that Notre Dame was blazing, protesters <a href="https://theconversation.com/extinction-rebellion-disruption-and-arrests-can-bring-social-change-115741">shut down</a> parts of London, urging emergency action against climate collapse. Nations and coastal cities are starting to disappear under <a href="https://web.whoi.edu/coastal-group/research/projects/pacific-climate-change/">rising oceans</a>. Densely populated regions are becoming <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-could-make-south-asia-too-hot-for-human-survival-by-2100/a-39944935">too hot for humans</a>. Many people in the global south are staring the collapse of functioning society in the face.</p>
<p>It therefore seems a strange time to restore at such cost a monument to the western civilisation that helped create these conditions. It is time to take a hard look at buildings such as Notre Dame and ask what they represent, and whether we should still be treasuring them.</p>
<p>Our current ideas on climate, environment, and inequality are partly the product of medieval Christian states. They saw humanity as dominant over and separate from nature, rather than part of it. Religious teaching emphasised that Earth was a place of sin, unhappiness and temptation. Good Christians should turn their thoughts to God, obey their priests, and look for justice only in the afterlife. The world would end before long, which meant it would be destroyed and replaced with a new, perfect place in which saved souls would live forever.</p>
<p>Church authorities regularly <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2007.00214.x">described</a> neighbouring populations as irrational “pagans” who were too close to nature, who worshipped trees, thunder and lightning. This was a justification for invading their lands, converting them to Christianity, and cutting down their sacred trees. </p>
<p>The remnants of these ideas persist in various forms today, from <a href="https://nt.global.ssl.fastly.net/documents/assessing-the-costs-of-environmental-land-management-in-the-uk-final-report-dec-2017.pdf">harmful land management practices</a> through to the idea that it is rational to prioritise the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2013/jan/09/economy-nature">economic goals</a> of the state over addressing environment collapse. The reluctance of wealthy nations to deviate from these attitudes is a major cause of climate and ecological breakdown. </p>
<p>So let’s not restore Notre Dame. Instead, let it stand as a symbol of the damage that our climate denial and environmental entitlement have already caused our planet; a reminder of the much greater losses that will follow, and a call to action.</p>
<h2>Why Notre Dame?</h2>
<p>Given the emotions around this cathedral and the great love expressed for it by so many people, it may seem strange to target Notre Dame for such a gesture. But when its history is considered, it becomes apparent that Notre Dame and the causes of climate and environmental breakdown are far from strangers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271486/original/file-20190429-194637-vp8526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271486/original/file-20190429-194637-vp8526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271486/original/file-20190429-194637-vp8526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271486/original/file-20190429-194637-vp8526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271486/original/file-20190429-194637-vp8526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271486/original/file-20190429-194637-vp8526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271486/original/file-20190429-194637-vp8526.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Capetian ‘Saint’ Louis IX, who ruled from 1226 to 1270, was a famously devout Catholic ‘crusader king’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rouget_-_Saint_Louis_médiateur_entre_le_roi_d%27Angleterre_et_ses_barons_(23_janvier_1264).jpg">Georges Rouget</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the nearly 200 years that Notre Dame was being built, the kingdom of France became increasingly powerful and closely governed. This was a crucial stage in the emergence of the modern nation. The ruling dynasty, the <a href="https://www.brepolsonline.net/action/showBook?doi=10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.109362">Capetians</a>, were skilled propagandists. The new cathedral was built to assert royal and religious prestige. It was a place from which <a href="http://manchester.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7228/manchester/9780719090974.001.0001/upso-9780719090974">crusades</a> were announced, and the population was taught that God valued obedience from the people. Social inequality was the human condition, and injustices were to be endured.</p>
<p>The construction, which began in 1163, was financed through taxes, tithes – 10% of annual income that all laypeople were required to hand over to the church – and labour from the peasant majority. Many of these people were serfs tied to the land they lived on, required by their lords to intensify the ongoing clearing of woodland and <a href="http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199573493.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199573493-e-4">draining of marshland</a> to extract the maximum from the terrain. In these areas, ecologies were disrupted and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_m-FAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=biodiversity&f=false">biodiversity</a> declined. Soil erosion, flooding and silting of rivers <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_m-FAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=soil%20erosion&f=false">resulted</a>.</p>
<p>The coercive, extractive rule on which Capetian France was founded – and on which Notre Dame was sanctioned – drove a wider exploitation of nature. For example, demand among the elite for furs and other luxuries led to <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Silent_Fields.html?id=HNLiStFz6GUC&redir_esc=y">severe reductions in animal, bird and fish populations</a>. Beavers, wildcats and most other fur-bearing animals bigger than a weasel, together with <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10152-004-0203-5">sturgeon and some native salmon</a>, were rare after the 12th century. </p>
<p>In areas where the rule of nobles was weaker and peasant farmers more independent, biodiversity was <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/an-environmental-history-of-medieval-europe/BC5AACBBD6500062F43F33FE15D539C5#fndtn-information">far better maintained</a>. Peasants were not forced to focus on growing cereal crops to feed nobles and their animals, and so had <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/an-environmental-history-of-medieval-europe/BC5AACBBD6500062F43F33FE15D539C5#fndtn-information">more varied diets</a>. They were healthier and the risks of famine in the population were lower. There are very clear connections between the strength of the French church and state’s coercive rule and the degree of ecological damage, unscrupulous extraction and social inequality.</p>
<h2>Notre Dame for the future</h2>
<p>The most compelling critique of plans to pour money into the restoration of Notre Dame has come from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-frances-gilets-jaunes-protesters-are-so-angry-108100">“gilets jaunes”</a>. They <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/20/notre-dame-1bn-fund-pits-paris-against-provinces-gilets-jaunes-macron">asserted</a> that their protests against <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/gilet-jaunes-yellow-vests-go-green-as-europeans-demand-climate-action/a-47638974">rising poverty and inequality</a> had been largely ignored by the same wealthy elites who could find, overnight, a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e952eafa-61d2-11e9-a27a-fdd51850994c">billion euros</a> for the <a href="https://www.apnews.com/91d9711a9e5549109dd04d264e02b720">state-launched</a> fundraiser in aid of the prestigious cathedral. </p>
<p>From this perspective, it seems that when making decisions about what matters, the priorities and values of the French state and elite have changed little. The main difference is that it is no longer just the poor of France whose interests are at stake.</p>
<p>To adapt to the challenges of the future, we need to take a radically <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-narrate-a-history-beyond-the-triumph-of-humanity-to-find-imaginative-solutions-109819">different view</a> of Europe’s past. We must recognise how deeply the roots of western civilisation and our contemporary way of life are entangled with sharp social injustice and environmental destruction.</p>
<p>Notre Dame could become a symbol of that recognition. For people of faith, clearing it for worship but not indulging in an expensive restoration could be a powerful way to act on <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html">Pope Francis’s call</a> for a drastic transformation of how humans treat the planet. It might seem dramatic, but only a strategic surrender of our damaging ways of living and thinking will enable us to respond to the fierce demands of the coming decades.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115930/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Power does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The coercive Christian rule under which Notre Dame was sanctioned drove a wide exploitation of nature. Let it stand as a reminder of our environmental sins and a call to action.Amanda Power, Associate Professor in Medieval History, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1135532019-04-29T01:46:22Z2019-04-29T01:46:22ZIt’s the luxuries that give it away. To fight corruption, follow the goods<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270358/original/file-20190423-15210-1x0m2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For individuals engaged in corruption, the luxury sector is an attractive vessel to launder illicit funds.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is disquiet about the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/fashion/la-ig-notre-dame-fire-repair-restore-paris-fashion-brands-20190416-story.html">French owners</a> of the luxury brands Luis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Givenchy and Gucci giving a whopping €300 million to the rebuilding of Notre Dame Cathedral. Such largesse, critics say, could be better used for humanitarian causes. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-we-so-moved-by-the-plight-of-the-notre-dame-115555">Why are we so moved by the plight of the Notre Dame?</a>
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<p>This is more than a rhetorical point. It is almost certain that some of the profits made by all sellers of luxury goods come from criminals who have siphoned off government funds. Rather than being spent on health, education and other social welfare programs, the money has been spent on luxury goods. </p>
<p>Luxury goods are used to facilitate corrupt transactions and launder dirty money. Using <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/kykl.12188">data for 32 high-income and emerging economies</a>, we have found a strong correlation between luxury item expenditure and societal corruption.</p>
<p>Our findings confirm previous research, such as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0973801014531135">luxury car sales being substantially higher</a> in OECD countries with higher perceived corruption levels. </p>
<p>We are not saying that luxury brands are doing anything criminal. Nonetheless they could make a great gift to the world by pitching in to build the institutional architecture needed to combat corruption.</p>
<h2>Corrupt figures</h2>
<p>Anecdotal evidence of the connection between corruption and luxury items is easy to find. </p>
<p>Right now, Malaysia’s former prime minister, Najib Razak, is on trial over the looting of billions of dollars from government accounts. Police raided his multiple homes and collected 280 boxes of luxury items estimated to be <a href="https://qz.com/1315601/malaysian-police-seized-luxury-goods-worth-some-273-million-from-the-homes-of-former-prime-minister-najib-razak-and-his-wife-rosmah-mansor/">worth more than US$270 million</a>. This included 12,000 pieces of jewellery worth up to US$220 million, 423 watches worth US$19.3 million and 567 handbags worth more than US$10 million.</p>
<p>Last year, Brazilian customs officials found luxury watches worth an estimated <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45546655">US$15 million in the bags</a> of the entourage of Teodorin Obiang, vice-president of Equatorial Guinea. The son of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president since 1979, he was convicted of corruption <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/29/equatorial-guinea-presidents-son-convicted-laundering-millions">by a French court</a> in 2017. </p>
<p>Swiss authorities seized his fleet of luxury cars, including a Koenigsegg One:1 (one of just seven built, worth US$2 million) in 2016. The same year Dutch authorities seized his <a href="https://yachtharbour.com/news/76m-ebony-shine-seized-by-dutch-authorities-1319">US$120 million super-yacht</a> at the request of a Swiss court. </p>
<p>Equatorial Guinea, meanwhile, ranks 141 out of 189 nations on the UN’s <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/GNQ">Human Development Index</a>.</p>
<p>The list goes on and on. When the Viktor Yanukovych was deposed as Ukrainian president in 2014, for example, his <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26307745">palatial home</a> revealed wealth far in excess of his official income. So too did the home of his attorney-general, Viktor Pshonka, which included a nest of <a href="https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/02/tour-the-opulent-evacuated-mcmansions-of-ukraines-fallen-leaders/">Fabergé eggs</a>.</p>
<h2>Calculating the correlation</h2>
<p>Our analysis covers all countries for which annual data on luxury spending per capita are obtainable, from 2004 to 2014. The sample includes the major emerging economies (Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa) and major high-income countries (US, Japan and Germany). Collectively the 32 sample countries represent about 85% of the world’s GDP.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270859/original/file-20190425-121245-ktj2dp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270859/original/file-20190425-121245-ktj2dp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270859/original/file-20190425-121245-ktj2dp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270859/original/file-20190425-121245-ktj2dp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270859/original/file-20190425-121245-ktj2dp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270859/original/file-20190425-121245-ktj2dp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270859/original/file-20190425-121245-ktj2dp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270859/original/file-20190425-121245-ktj2dp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>We have cross-referenced these data with two corruption measures: the World Bank’s Control of Corruption Index, and Transparency International’s <a href="https://www.transparency.org/research/cpi/overview">Corruption Perceptions Index</a>. </p>
<p>Our calculations make allowances for variables such as relative wealth and spending by tourists. Greater spending on luxury goods is to be expected in richer nations and in international travel hubs such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai. We have also controlled for factors such as inequality, with demand for luxury goods increasing as the income gap widens. </p>
<p>Our results suggest stronger anti-corruption controls reduce luxury spending. More press freedom and information transparency help too, presumably because this increases the chance of corruption being exposed.</p>
<h2>Conspicous consumption</h2>
<p>In countries where paying bribes to government officials to secure government contracts or operating licences is common practice, luxury goods are often used instead of direct monetary payments. Such “gifts” do not leave a transaction trail so are less likely to result in legal action against corrupt officials. </p>
<p>Another explanation for the link between corruption and luxury spending is that corrupt individuals send signals about their “services” by demonstrating a lavish lifestyle beyond their official source of income. It is a form of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class">conspicuous consumption</a> – buying something not for its intrinsic utility but as a signal to others.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-are-willing-to-pay-for-mega-expensive-things-70326">Why we are willing to pay for mega expensive things</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>Transparency International notes in its 2017 report <a href="https://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/publication/tainted_treasures_money_laundering_risks_in_luxury_markets">Tainted Treasures: Money Laundering Risks in Luxury Markets</a>: “For individuals engaged in corruption schemes, the luxury sector is significantly attractive as a vehicle to launder illicit funds. Luxury goods, super yachts and stately homes located at upmarket addresses can also bestow credibility on the corrupt, providing a sheen of legitimacy to people who benefit from stolen wealth.”</p>
<h2>Cleaning up the luxury market</h2>
<p>We agree with Transparency International that laws, policies and practices to combat this connection are underdeveloped.</p>
<p>Anti-corruption policies need to include monitoring luxury markets and developing regulations that increase transparency in luxury gifting. </p>
<p>The merits of doing so are demonstrated by anti-corruption efforts in China.
In 2012 the Chinese government initiated plans to track corruption by looking at luxury goods ownership. As a result, consumption of luxury goods <a href="https://www.euromonitor.com/luxury-goods-in-china/report">fell</a> from US$93.48 billion in 2011 to US$73.1 billion in 2014.</p>
<p>There needs to be established global policies. The countries that host the largest luxury markets – China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and Britain – must also do more to ensure sellers of luxury goods follow due diligence and reporting requirements.</p>
<p>In Britain, for example, Transparency International reports that auction houses (such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s) filed just 15 of the total 381,882 suspicious transaction reports made to law enforcement authorities in one year. </p>
<p>In Antwerp, the largest diamond exchange in the world, suspicious transaction reports by precious stones dealers were <a href="http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/mer4/Mutual-Evaluation-Report-Belgium-2015.pdf">totally lacking</a>. </p>
<p>Luxury goods dealers have too little motivation to ensure those buying their trinkets and toys are not using money gained corruptly.</p>
<p>If the contribution of France’s luxury empires to rebuild one of Christendom’s most famous churches sparks a conversation about the problems of the luxury goods market and what can be done to to fight corruption, that will be a positive. </p>
<p>More than one French icon is on the line.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113553/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Data from 32 high-income and emerging economies show a strong correlation between luxury item expenditure and societal corruption.Reza Tajaddini, Senior Lecturer in Finance, Swinburne University of TechnologyHassan F. Gholipour, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1158312019-04-25T10:44:00Z2019-04-25T10:44:00ZNotre Dame has shaped the intellectual life of Paris for eight centuries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270749/original/file-20190424-121241-e4bkuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Professional mountain climbers installing synthetic, waterproof tarps over the gutted, exposed exterior of Notre Dame Cathedral.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-France-Notre-Dame/e4e3d794cf5a46838f126d5d1eae3c64/1/0">AP Photo/Thibault Camus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The burning wreckage of the 12th-century Notre-Dame de Paris led to an immediate outpouring of grief over the damage to its irreplaceable architecture and works of art. </p>
<p>But as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=zhBYeiMAAAAJ">scholar</a> of medieval religious history, I know that the cathedral has an influence that goes way beyond its physical structure.</p>
<p>Its impact on the city and its people is not just visual, but social, religious and political.</p>
<h2>The cathedral and the city</h2>
<p>Medieval Paris was a <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14625.html">thriving and cosmopolitan city</a> of merchants, beggars, bankers, servants and scholars. Its households were graced with fine tapestries and furnishings, and shops featured luxurious fabrics and furs, <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15228.html">maintained by servants</a> requiring the management of a <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100274850">capably trained housekeeper</a>.</p>
<p>From the narrow medieval streets, <a href="http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503549378-1">Notre Dame</a>’s towers loomed impossibly large over the small wooden houses below them. The cathedral, its clergy and its square were important to medieval civic life. They hosted markets and solemn private legal and personal ceremonies including <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-medieval-idea-of-marriage-9780198205043?prevSortField=5&sortField=5&start=760&resultsPerPage=20&lang=en&cc=dk">engagement ceremonies</a>. </p>
<p>Notre Dame’s influence even extended to the prisons of Paris. On Palm Sunday, the cathedral clergy walked in solemn procession from the Abbey of St. Geneviève, a monastery dedicated to the city’s patron saint, to the cathedral. Along the way, they would stop at the door of Châtelet prison, and a single prisoner would be <a href="http://www.editions-sorbonne.fr/fr/livre/?GCOI=28405100319600&fa=author&person_id=5261">released</a> in honor of the holy day. </p>
<p>On feast days, the relics of local saints were brought in procession through the streets of the city. <a href="http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=ON-M1-F1-05110920-1">Pilgrims</a> thronged the cathedral to visit the <a href="http://fortune.com/2019/04/16/notre-dame-fire-saved-relics-crown-of-thorns/">relics of the Crucifixion</a> held there, providing a boost to the local economy. </p>
<p>Their “votive offerings,” or the gifts they made to the saints to whom they prayed, were often made of wax. Votive candles are lit in a similar spirit today.</p>
<p>The massive 14th-century choir stalls were reserved for the <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14625.html">canons</a>, a small community of clergy attached to the cathedral. They cared for the cathedral’s vestments, relics and other valuables. </p>
<p>They also organized masses for the dead. The cathedral’s donors often sought to commemorate the anniversary of their loved ones’ deaths, to speed their way toward heaven.</p>
<h2>The origins of the university</h2>
<p>Paris, famous for its philosophers, artists, poets and composers, owes much to Notre Dame and its influence on the world of the mind.</p>
<p>The cathedral compound where the canons lived also included the cathedral school, where priests of the diocese were trained and where <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/intellectual-culture-in-medieval-paris/BB716ABE1670DC35BE9E4530203A6CED">the best European scholars</a> came to study.</p>
<p>Influential medieval thinkers such as <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/thomas-aquinas.html">Thomas Aquinas</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Albertus-Magnus">Albertus Magnus</a>, <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/erasmus/">Erasmus</a>, <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/john-calvin.html">John Calvin</a>, several popes and many other intellectual luminaries studied or taught there in its early centuries. The opportunity to study with famous scholars drew students from across Europe. </p>
<p>To capitalize on their presence, in 1200 the savvy king Philip Augustus decreed that all students were under the jurisdiction of the church. In 1215, the pope’s representative in Paris, the papal legate, issued statutes organizing the university’s studies and requirements for teaching. In 1231, a papal bull <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/uparis-stats1231.asp">“Parens Scientarium”</a> gave the university the power to organize its own statutes – and thus, one of the first <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Institutionalized-Teaching-University-CONFERENCES/dp/0268013284">universities</a> in Europe was born, just across the river from the cathedral.</p>
<p>The first hostel for university students was founded in 1257 by the royal chaplain Robert de Sorbonne, from whom the Sorbonne University in Paris takes its sobriquet today.</p>
<h2>Notre Dame’s deep influence over the years</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270753/original/file-20190424-121258-3qck5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270753/original/file-20190424-121258-3qck5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270753/original/file-20190424-121258-3qck5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270753/original/file-20190424-121258-3qck5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270753/original/file-20190424-121258-3qck5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1022&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270753/original/file-20190424-121258-3qck5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1022&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270753/original/file-20190424-121258-3qck5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1022&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A nighttime view of the cathedral in 1933.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-France-PARI-/378244079fe5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/1/0">AP Photo</a></span>
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<p>The university, in turn, shaped the city. Students and masters all required food, drink, lodging and other services. They, along with the many priests and other clergy of the cathedral, local parishes, monasteries, and bishops’ households made up a substantial part of the city’s population and economy. </p>
<p>Because it was created by the decree of a papal representative, the university was governed by the Catholic Church. Students joined the lower end of the clerical hierarchy, and were exempt from punishment by secular authorities. </p>
<p>Like today, there were protests and strikes. In 1229, a massive student protest was held when several students were killed by the city guard. Later clashes included protests over high costs of living – a reminder of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/who-are-france-s-yellow-jacket-protesters-what-do-they-n940016">“yellow vest” protests in France</a> today.</p>
<p>In recent centuries, many well-known scientists, writers, politicians and scholars studied at the Sorbonne. Many of them have had a great impact on France and on the world. Among them are luminaries such as <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/marie-curie/biographical/">Marie Curie</a>, <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/beauvoir/">Simone de Beauvoir</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/09/world/francois-mitterrand-dies-at-79-champion-of-a-unified-europe.html">Francois Mitterand</a>, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-novel-that-norman-mailer-didnt-write">Norman Mailer</a> and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1986/wiesel/biographical/">Elie Wiesel</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270751/original/file-20190424-121254-pkq109.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270751/original/file-20190424-121254-pkq109.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270751/original/file-20190424-121254-pkq109.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270751/original/file-20190424-121254-pkq109.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270751/original/file-20190424-121254-pkq109.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270751/original/file-20190424-121254-pkq109.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270751/original/file-20190424-121254-pkq109.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The cathedral has been much more than its physical structure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-France-Notre-Dame-Fire/0172638eace84e17bb506832e80feabc/75/1">AP Photo/Francois Mori</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The focus in news coverage has been, and rightly so, on the physical building: the stone, the stained glass, the timber roof that burned. But as we start to discuss restoration, let us also appreciate the many roles that Notre Dame has always played for the city and its people, as much now as when it was built.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115831/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily E. Graham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The influence of Notre Dame Cathedral extended into every part of the life of Paris. The cathedral school was the training ground for medieval thinkers and the place of birth of the first university.Emily E. Graham, Assistant Professor of Medieval History, Oklahoma State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1158672019-04-23T19:28:03Z2019-04-23T19:28:03ZDigital cathedrals: bringing Notre-Dame de Paris back to life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270539/original/file-20190423-175539-12u9qld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C1375%2C759&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Notre-Dame de Paris in all its digital splendour -- virtual reality and immersive mediation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Art Graphique & Patrimoine</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The devastating fire at Notre-Dame de Paris <a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dame-de-paris-from-searing-emotion-to-the-future-rebirth-of-a-world-heritage-site-115612">sparked intense emotion around the world</a>, demonstrating the cathedral’s important place in history and culture as well as its enormous symbolic power. As France and other countries around the world continue to mourn the tragedy, the French government, experts, journalists and others are already mobilising to launch an ambitious restoration – funding, planning, skills, materials and technologies.</p>
<p>The debate has already started between <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/apr/17/france-announces-architecture-competition-rebuild-notre-dames-spire">traditionalists and modernists</a>. Should the cathedral be restored as exactly as it was, including the wooden roof structure? Should metal or other fire-resistant materials be used? Whatever the choices made, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299924369_Heritage_in_the_Digital_Age">digital heritage tools</a> will be critical, both in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317757322_The_Role_of_Digital_Technologies_in_the_Preservation_of_Cultural_Heritage">restoring and preserving</a> the iconic monument and in developing virtual access to past and present treasures during the restoration process and after its completion.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ebfb4a0lAnU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Drone overflight of Notre-Dame de Paris after the April 2019 fire.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Cathedrals as sites for digital experimentation</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296316302569">adoption of information and communication technologies</a> (ICT) by heritage organisations serves both of their two missions, curatorship and access. Because of their size and intricate structures, cathedrals have always been the proving ground for technological innovation, from <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3050392?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">flying buttresses</a> to <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140210-duomo-florence-brunelleschi-cathedral-architecture/">immense domes</a>, and this remains true today with digital technologies. Projects such as <a href="https://www.myleszhang.org/2017/05/16/amiens/">Digital Cathedral</a>, <a href="https://home.mis.u-picardie.fr/%7Eg-caron/pub/2012_RICH_Caron.pdf">e-Cathedral</a>, and <a href="http://mappinggothic.org/building/1164">Mapping Gothic France</a> bear witness to the interest of the scientific community, public authorities and private firms, which see digital technology as a powerful tool to enhance the comprehension, preservation, restoration and transmission of heritage.</p>
<p>For example, the Computer Science Department of Columbia University, New York, has launched a major project to <a href="http://www.cs.columbia.edu/%7Eatroccol/papers/ACVA_09.pdf">digitally preserve Saint-Pierre Cathedral in Beauvais</a>, France, which has the highest vault in Europe at <a href="https://www.patrimoine-histoire.fr/Patrimoine/Beauvais/Beauvais-Saint-Pierre.htm">48 meters</a>. This monumental structure suffered partial collapses several times during its construction during the Middle Ages, and long after work stopped in 1604, it suffered bomb and fire damage during World War II. Due to its daring design and advanced age, as well as the unstable ground, past shocks, and poorly managed alterations, the structure is highly fragile. To document and model the it in 3D, the researchers made <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/%7Egd18/aqf-full-proposal.pdf">220 interior and exterior scans at multiple locations</a> to better enable the cathedral to be preserved and passed on to future generations.</p>
<p>Digital archaeological technologies have been used to reconstruct and visualise lost or inaccessible sites such as <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6743804">Pompeii</a>, the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X1630428X">Lascaux Caves</a> and <a href="https://mw18.mwconf.org/paper/digital-tools-and-how-we-use-them-the-destruction-and-reconstruction-of-tangible-cultural-heritage/">Palmyra</a>. They have a memorial function for inaccessible monuments, as well as those that have been partially or completely destroyed. These technologies can reproduce them so faithfully that it is possible to feel a measure of sacredness in their virtual doubles.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jAi29udFMKw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A <em>National Geographic</em> documentary, “Laser scanning reveals cathedral’s mysteries”, featuring Andrew Tallon of Vassar College discussing how he used digital scanning to map the inside of Washington National Cathedral.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, the St. Donato Cathedral in Arezzo, Italy, demolished during the 16th century, has received a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/29188826/The_St._Donato_Cathedral_in_Arezzo._Digital_reconstruction_of_a_completely_lost_architecture">full digital reconstruction</a>. A research group within the Computer Science Department of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, has <a href="https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/4191">digitally reconstructed St. Andrews Cathedral</a>, which was ransacked during the Protestant reformation in 1559 and subsequently fell into ruin.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.vista-ar.eu/en/">Vista-AR European project</a> aims to use digital technologies to “discover the past and invisible history of a site”, including the Concergerie in Paris, where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before her execution in 1793. Located in southwest England, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=mxK-GTo-9tM">Exeter Cathedral</a> was transformed, damaged and rebuilt numerous times across its long history, including after it was bombed during World War II. Now, through the use of <a href="https://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/visit-us/vista-ar-transforming-heritage-tourism/">augmented-reality systems</a>, visitors will be able to witness scenes of past life, meet characters from long ago, and virtually access missing or inaccessible artefacts.</p>
<p>Digital technologies are also widely used to create audio guides, applications, sound and light shows, and video games. Some digital events are also based on a combination of technologies, including the summertime multimedia spectacles on the facades of the cathedrals in Amiens (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5G7Xtc2gmE">“Chroma”</a>), Reims (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMWTXPg1GkY">“Regalia”</a>) and Montreal <a href="https://www.aurabasiliquemontreal.com/en/">“Aura”</a>. Prior to the April 2019 fire, Notre-Dame de Paris naturally had its own, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx5q6VVgpOs">“Dame de Cœur”</a>.</p>
<h2>Digital technologies for restoration</h2>
<p>Given the serious damage to Notre-Dame de Paris, digital technology would have a wide range of potential applications:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Preserve the building digitally forever using ultra-high definition, panoramic, stereoscopic <a href="http://mappinggothic.org/building/1164">images</a>, as well as digital libraries and archives.</p></li>
<li><p>Explore a number of mysteries associated with the construction of religious buildings and symbols they contain using <a href="https://copa.hypotheses.org/category/imagerie-uv">spectral, infra-red and ultra-violet imagery</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CXROG62lLk">3D tomography</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>Reconstruct the cathedral using <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAi29udFMKw">digital scanning and modelling</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>During the years-long reconstruction process, allow the public to virtually visit the cathedral using applications, <a href="https://www.360cities.net/image/france-paris-notre-dame-cathedral">head-mounted diplays</a> and other virtual-reality devices.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Notre-Dame de Paris is not only the most visited tourist site in Europe, it has also been extensively studied, documented, filmed and analysed. Prior to his death in 2018, the pioneering art historian <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/notre-dame-fire-vassar-professor-andrew-tallon-who-scanned-the-cathedral-died-months-before-the-disaster">Andrew Tallon</a> scanned and documented Notre Dame and many other cathedrals. The invaluable data collected, which contains more than 1 billion data points, has been <a href="http://pages.vassar.edu/antallon/">made available in open access</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270518/original/file-20190423-175542-16e1mcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Art Graphique & Patrimoine 3D digitisation of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AGP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The firms <a href="http://www.artgp.fr/-architectural-surveys-.html?lang=en">Art Graphique & Patrimoine</a> (AGP) and Géomètres-Experts (GEA), which specialise in <a href="http://www.artgp.fr/-architectural-surveys-.html?lang=en">3D digitisation</a>, have also worked on Paris Notre-Dame Cathedral. They produced a 3D model of the roof and beams for the renovation in progress that could well have triggered the fire. This model will now be crucial for the restoration of the building.</p>
<h2>Digital technologies for access</h2>
<p>Digital technologies can provide onsite and online audiences with experiential access to heritage knowledge, artefacts and places. In the case of Notre Dame, digital technology can be used to <a href="https://books.google.fr/books?hl=fr&lr=&id=Trh6DRnwPtEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA155&dq=%22digital+technologies%22+%22disseminate+knowledge%22+%22cultural+heritage%22&ots=nvZ7PkxDvZ&sig=qefxCrBKAO3m2eTstNAx_z8fgDc">disseminate knowledge</a> about how the monument evolved through the ages, the restoration project, the historical techniques that will be involved and behind the scenes at the construction site.</p>
<p>A similar effort is underway in Basque Country, Spain, where the 800-year-old Cathedral Santa Maria de Vitoria-Gasteiz is being restored but is “open for construction”. The foundation directing the project offers <a href="https://www.catedralvitoria.eus/en/explore-the-cathedral/">two-hour guided tours</a>, from the foundations to the bell tower. The tour concludes with a sound and light show, “El portico de la Luz”, revealing how the entrance was originally painted. So far, more than 1.5 million people from all around the world have taken part.</p>
<p>For Notre-Dame de Paris, the first step in the process will be the construction of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/18/notre-dame-to-get-ephemeral-wooden-cathedral-during-rebuild">temporary wooden cathedral</a> in front, to maintain a living link with the cathedral. Within the temporary cathedral and via an online portal, visitors will be able to follow reports on the restoration’s progress, take part in the virtual community of Notre Dame, and learn about related events.</p>
<p>Indeed, to overcome the potential fall in cultural tourism, “phygital” (physical and digital) heritage technologies could be combined next to the cathedral, to create a new fascinating environment with interactive screens, digital tables, virtual reality lounges and arcades incorporating simulations and games providing strong sensations and emotions. For example, visitors could experience the video game <a href="https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/ubisoft-notre-dame-cathedral-1203191516/"><em>Assassin’s Creed Unity</em></a>, which features an <a href="https://thestarphoenix.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/ubisoft-historian-says-companys-3d-notre-dame-a-reminder-of-beauty-during-rebuild/wcm/367e3bb2-3076-4d9f-85d4-e07a61730558">intricate simulation of the cathedral</a> in all its beauty.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270528/original/file-20190423-175518-6syfod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Re-creation of Notre Dame by Ubisoft for its game <em>Assassin’s Creed Unity</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ubisoft</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>After the tragic fire at Notre-Dame de Paris, planning for an ambitious reconstruction is already underway – and the latest digital technologies will be at the forefront.Oihab Allal-Chérif, Full Professor, Information Systems, Purchasing and Supply Chain Management, Neoma Business SchoolAnne Gombault, Professeur de management, directrice du centre de recherche Industries créatives Culture, Kedge Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1156142019-04-22T10:46:45Z2019-04-22T10:46:45ZHow ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ inspired the cathedral’s 19th-century revival<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269831/original/file-20190417-139120-1k4hyut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The gargoyles that sit on Notre Dame today were installed as a nod to the cathedral's past.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Le_Stryge_of_Notre-Dame_de_Paris#/media/File:Chimera_of_Notre-Dame_de_Paris.jpg">Noemiseh91/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On April 15, people around the world watched in horror as a voracious fire consumed the medieval wooden roof of Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral and felled its spire.</p>
<p>The following day brought some measure of relief: Despite the building’s wrenching losses, its masonry structure <a href="https://www.citylab.com/design/2019/04/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-paris-gothic-architecture-history/587191/">was largely intact</a>, and many of its precious relics had been swiftly and lovingly removed by a human chain of church officials and firefighters. The building had steadfastly endured the destructive flames.</p>
<p>Since then, Notre Dame has been <a href="https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/notre-dame-fire/h_67124f975aef47cd650abb913003b36e">hailed</a> as a stable and enduring symbol of French identity. </p>
<p>But it would be more accurate to say that the cathedral’s importance comes from the very instability of its meaning.</p>
<p>Originally completed in 1345, by the early 19th century Notre Dame stood in a state of dire disrepair. It took an idiosyncratic young architect, moved by Victor Hugo’s “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=NpOjMrpFB-MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=hunchback+of+notre+dame&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiv7fiv7NnhAhWQmOAKHfX8Bn4Q6AEIPDAD#v=onepage&q&f=false">The Hunchback of Notre Dame</a>,” to fashion a new meaning for the building – one that, ironically, looked nostalgically to the past for inspiration.</p>
<h2>‘The book will destroy the edifice’</h2>
<p>In 1831, when Victor Hugo published his famous novel “Notre Dame de Paris” – known in English as “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” – the country was experiencing rapid social, political and industrial change. </p>
<p>The cathedral, meanwhile, had fallen by the wayside. Years of neglect, blinkered renovation efforts and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dechristianization_of_France_during_the_French_Revolution">the anti-Catholic zeal of the French Revolution</a> had left the once-regal building in ruins. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270031/original/file-20190418-28110-10a882u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270031/original/file-20190418-28110-10a882u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270031/original/file-20190418-28110-10a882u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270031/original/file-20190418-28110-10a882u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270031/original/file-20190418-28110-10a882u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270031/original/file-20190418-28110-10a882u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270031/original/file-20190418-28110-10a882u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">During the French Revolution, many of the treasures of the cathedral were either destroyed or plundered. Only the great bells avoided being melted down, and the church interior was used as a warehouse for the storage of food.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Notre-Dame,_l%27%C3%89v%C3%AAch%C3%A9_et_le_clo%C3%AEtre,_1830.jpg">Brown University Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Set in the 15th century, the novel alluringly evoked a different period in French history. In the novel, Hugo <a href="https://www.bartleby.com/312/0502.html">lamented</a> that the printing press had supplanted architecture as the primary communicator of civilization’s cherished values. In one of the book’s most famous moments, the archdeacon Frollo points sadly to a printed book on his table. </p>
<p>“Alas! This will kill that,” he laments, directing his finger to the cathedral looming magisterially outside his window. He continues, “The book will destroy the edifice.” </p>
<p>Like other Romanticist writers and artists, Hugo imagined the Middle Ages as a simpler time, an era when society was governed by pure faith. He believed that back then, the cathedral was able to inspire the masses and guide them toward a life of devotion and morality. Hugo hoped that his novel might spur the building’s rebirth, allowing it to renew France’s ethical core during the Industrial Revolution.</p>
<p>One architect, attracted to the picturesque history on view in Hugo’s novel, would ultimately heed his call.</p>
<h2>An architect reaches longingly for the past</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eugene-Emmanuel-Viollet-le-Duc/images-videos">Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc</a> was a teenager when Hugo’s novel was published. The book affirmed Viollet-le-Duc’s suspicion that his own age’s riot of styles and tastes reflected the unwieldy chaos of modern life.</p>
<p>Like Hugo, he sought to capture France’s “authentic” past and, like Hugo, was drawn to the Middle Ages. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269829/original/file-20190417-139120-16ozmti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269829/original/file-20190417-139120-16ozmti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269829/original/file-20190417-139120-16ozmti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269829/original/file-20190417-139120-16ozmti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269829/original/file-20190417-139120-16ozmti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269829/original/file-20190417-139120-16ozmti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269829/original/file-20190417-139120-16ozmti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eugene_viollet_le_duc.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For this reason, he refused to enroll in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ecole-des-Beaux-Arts">École des Beaux-Arts</a>, the main training ground for France’s architects, because of the school’s dogmatic focus on classical architecture. He opted instead to learn on the job, working for architects around Paris while studying the city’s medieval architecture in his spare time. </p>
<p>In 1842, the government announced a competition for Notre Dame’s restoration and the 28-year-old Viollet-le-Duc threw his hat into the ring. By then, he had already established his reputation as an expert in the restoration of medieval buildings. </p>
<p>But for him, restoration was about more than touching up an existing form. It meant breathing life into a building by transforming it.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UxpBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=%22To+restore+a+building+is+not+to+preserve+it,+to+repair+or+rebuild+it,%22&source=bl&ots=8oZOePoKO1&sig=ACfU3U3M738aqPIsqY9L1iupB2TlRSMlBA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-hKmVlNjhAhUvnOAKHZlzCcUQ6AEwBnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false">As he later wrote</a>, “To restore a building is not to preserve it, to repair or rebuild it; it is to reinstate it in a condition of completeness which could never have existed at any given time.” Viollet-le-Duc knew that the very act of restoring old buildings was, itself, a modern notion.</p>
<h2>A symbol of stability in uncertain times?</h2>
<p>Thus, Viollet-le-Duc’s winning entry would not simply aim to preserve the cathedral as it then stood. Instead, he sought to revive the building’s mythical past. </p>
<p>During the restoration, Viollet-le-Duc redesigned and rebuilt the medieval spire, which had been removed in the 1780s due to its vulnerability in high winds (an absence that had appalled Hugo). He also sprinkled the building with its now-famous gargoyles in accord with Hugo’s <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=MsEyAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA524&dq=%22grinning+monsters%22+victor+hugo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwimiazy6dfhAhWndt8KHSQEA_gQ6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=%22grinning%20monsters%22%20victor%20hugo&f=false">atmospheric depiction</a> of a building adorned with “grinning monsters.” </p>
<p>Viollet-le-Duc’s renovated cathedral – the version that we know today – is a product both of the French Middle Ages and of its architectural revival in the 19th century. Like Hugo, Viollet-le-Duc romantically conceived medieval architecture as a stable bulwark against his own uncertain times. He wanted to intensify what he saw as the building’s mystical power – its ability to speak to France’s past at a time when the forces of modernity were threatening to sweep its traces away. </p>
<p>Viollet-le-Duc also ensured his own role in the rehabilitation would forever be preserved: His likeness appears in the face of a copper statue of St. Thomas at the base of the spire. </p>
<p>By good fortune, this statue was <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-paris-notre-dame-renovation-project-20190415-story.html">removed for the renovation</a> just last week and was spared from the conflagration.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270033/original/file-20190418-28100-xbj9c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270033/original/file-20190418-28100-xbj9c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270033/original/file-20190418-28100-xbj9c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270033/original/file-20190418-28100-xbj9c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270033/original/file-20190418-28100-xbj9c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270033/original/file-20190418-28100-xbj9c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270033/original/file-20190418-28100-xbj9c9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Viollet-le-Duc’s face appears on a statue of St. Thomas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Notre-Dame_de_Paris_086.jpg">Harmonia Amanda/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since the fire, many writers have correctly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/great-cathedrals-burn-collapse-and-crack-notre-dame-can-survive-this/2019/04/16/b973eab4-5fbb-11e9-9ff2-abc984dc9eec_story.html">pointed out</a> that the catastrophe is also only one episode in a much longer story of architectural survival. </p>
<p>Notre Dame will certainly live on in some new form; France has been offered <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2019/04/16/apple-notre-dame-cathedral-fire-rebuilding-news/">astronomical donations</a> for the purpose. In fact, a competition to redesign the spire <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/apr/17/france-announces-architecture-competition-rebuild-notre-dames-spire">has already been announced</a>.</p>
<p>Much like Viollet-le-Duc’s restoration, this newest version of Notre Dame will look to the past – selectively – to ensure the building’s future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115614/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Looking nostalgically to the past, a young architect sought to revive the building as a bulwark to the uncertainty of the Industrial Revolution.Julia Walker, Assistant Professor of Art History, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1156582019-04-18T21:24:30Z2019-04-18T21:24:30ZNotre Dame: a history of medieval cathedrals and fire<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269810/original/file-20190417-139084-1qv3hhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/629155787?src=cMxgZKJKo7zjSSQtp5wCGw-1-11&size=medium_jpg">Zabotnova Inna/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many great churches and cathedrals have suffered catastrophic fires over their long histories and medieval chronicles are full of stories of devastation and ruin as a result – but they also tell of how the buildings were reconstructed and made better than ever.</p>
<p>The devastating fire that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2019/apr/17/notre-dame-cathedral-before-and-after-the-devastating-fire-video">destroyed the roofs and spire of Notre Dame</a> in Paris demonstrated the vulnerabilities of medieval cathedrals and great churches, but also revealed the skills of their master masons. The lead-covered wooden roof structure burned so fast because the fire was able to take hold under the lead and increase in intensity before it was visible from the outside, and it then spread easily to all the other sections of the roof. </p>
<p>Notre Dame was saved from total destruction because the medieval builders gave it a stone vault over all the main spaces, and also on the tops of the aisles which meant that the burning timbers and molten lead couldn’t break through easily.</p>
<p>But French churches and cathedrals are more at risk than ones in Britain because they don’t usually have a stone tower in the centre to act as a firebreak – this is what saved York Minster in 1984 when <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_Minster#1984_fire">the transept roof caught fire</a> but the tower stopped it spreading further. </p>
<p>Turning to Britain, medieval chronicles provide fascinating reading for historians as we can find eyewitness accounts of the unfolding disasters when fires occurred in the past. At Croyland Abbey in Lincolnshire, the monk who found the fire in the 12th century rushed to the cloister to wake the sleeping monks in their dormitory, but was burned by the red-hot lead falling from the roof and had to be taken to the infirmary for treatment. </p>
<p>Swift action by the other monks saved the building, and the next abbot restored it to its former glory, although the loss of precious manuscripts and documents, <a href="https://archive.org/details/ecclesiasticalhi03orde/page/208">“caused them much sorrow”</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269981/original/file-20190418-28100-oubjgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269981/original/file-20190418-28100-oubjgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269981/original/file-20190418-28100-oubjgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269981/original/file-20190418-28100-oubjgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269981/original/file-20190418-28100-oubjgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269981/original/file-20190418-28100-oubjgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269981/original/file-20190418-28100-oubjgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269981/original/file-20190418-28100-oubjgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Master masons were highly skilled.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/carving-stone-traditional-way-craftsmanship-detail-1252443733?src=bBszJ1fCtwqFToODac3Vtw-1-91">Sergio Foto/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The canons of the great priory church of Gisborough in north-east England were very unlucky: the masons had just completed a very splendid, and expensive, rebuilding project when they had to start all over again. On May 16, 1289, so the chronicles tell us, a plumber – in medieval times, someone who worked with lead – and his two assistants went up onto the roof to make a few final repairs to the leads. Unfortunately, the plumber left a fire pan on the roof beams when he went down for his lunch, leaving his assistants to put out the fire. This they failed to do, and the whole roof went up in flames, followed by the building and all its contents. </p>
<p>Traces of the fire can still be found at the west end of the church, which is virtually all that they were able to save, and a new building arose from the ashes over the next hundred years. Plumbers had to be very careful, they were the only ones who needed to have fires burning close to where they were working, and at Ely Cathedral you can still see where a plumber used the hollow between two arches high up on the back of the west front as a makeshift chimney for his fire. Fortunately, nothing dreadful happened there.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269975/original/file-20190418-28116-1twiiwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269975/original/file-20190418-28116-1twiiwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269975/original/file-20190418-28116-1twiiwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269975/original/file-20190418-28116-1twiiwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269975/original/file-20190418-28116-1twiiwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269975/original/file-20190418-28116-1twiiwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269975/original/file-20190418-28116-1twiiwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lincoln cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/medieval-cathedral-lincoln-grand-gothic-building-1116839306?src=5Voty0c5EFo_Enet63Obgg-1-4">Lebendigger/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At Lincoln cathedral, we can see where the fire in the west front <a href="https://lincolncathedral.com/history-conservation/timeline/">in the 12th century</a> damaged the staircases because these acted as chimneys and spread the fire quickly up into the rest of the building. The building’s limestone turned pink in the extreme heat and it’s clear that the masons had to take down the more damaged parts of the west front to repair the stonework that had been closer to the fire and had cracked. One fascinating detail remains: the masons had to check how deeply the fire damage had penetrated the stone and the marks they cut into the stone are still there.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269979/original/file-20190418-28106-1xbt6gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269979/original/file-20190418-28106-1xbt6gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269979/original/file-20190418-28106-1xbt6gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269979/original/file-20190418-28106-1xbt6gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269979/original/file-20190418-28106-1xbt6gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269979/original/file-20190418-28106-1xbt6gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269979/original/file-20190418-28106-1xbt6gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269979/original/file-20190418-28106-1xbt6gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail of one of the Becket Miracle Windows in Canterbury Cathedral, 1180-1220, marking the shrine to St Thomas Becket.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/canterbury-uk-april-11-detail-one-100588843?src=SaUE12C-21xBaBSO5hCzYg-1-2">Platslee/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Canterbury Cathedral was struggling to cope with all the pilgrims drawn to the shrine of the murdered Thomas Becket and a fire of 1174 gave the monks the chance to build a fine new building to house his shrine. </p>
<p>The eyewitness account has details of the heroic monks rushing into the building to save all its treasures, and it’s <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/30/canterbury-cathedral-fire-12th-century-arson-committed-monks/">even been suggested</a> that this fire wasn’t an accident and was started by the monks themselves as it brought so many benefits in its wake. The master mason gave them a superb new building in the Gothic style and with all the funds pouring in, the monks were able to move back into their church within five years of the fire, although completing the building work took a little longer.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269976/original/file-20190418-28103-1hrabgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269976/original/file-20190418-28103-1hrabgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269976/original/file-20190418-28103-1hrabgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269976/original/file-20190418-28103-1hrabgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269976/original/file-20190418-28103-1hrabgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269976/original/file-20190418-28103-1hrabgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269976/original/file-20190418-28103-1hrabgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St Paul’s Cathedral. Originally a medieval church, rebuilt after the Great Fire of London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/st-pauls-598755587?src=OZoDesjbcBkCjXrEV5DY1g-1-22">George M Hiles/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Sir Christopher Wren, the Great Fire of London in 1666 gave him the opportunity he’d been waiting for: to give London the cathedral it needed for the modern age. The medieval cathedral had been falling into disrepair for years and various attempts to patch it up had left it weakened and muddled in appearance. Wandering among the ruins after the fire, Wren was handed a piece of stone from a tomb monument with the word “Resurgam” – I will rise again – carved on it, and this encouraged him to press on with his plans for a whole new building. It took 50 years, but it gave us the St Paul’s Cathedral that we know today.</p>
<p>Coventry also rose from the ashes of despair after the firebombing of November 1940 in World War II. The cathedral had been built as one of <a href="http://www.coventrycathedral.org.uk/wpsite/our-history/">the city’s great medieval churches</a> and became the city’s cathedral in 1918. It was a fine late-medieval building with a huge timber roof, and this was no match for the fire bombs that rained down on it during Coventry’s blitz.</p>
<p>Burning timbers fell straight down into the building and caused a huge bonfire that cracked the slender stone work supports and brought them crashing down. By morning, the building was a devastated shell. Basil Spence, the architect of the new Coventry Cathedral in the 1950s, sensitively integrated the ruins into the design of his new building where they stand as a memorial to the events of the 1940s.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269978/original/file-20190418-28087-1qotzp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269978/original/file-20190418-28087-1qotzp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269978/original/file-20190418-28087-1qotzp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269978/original/file-20190418-28087-1qotzp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269978/original/file-20190418-28087-1qotzp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269978/original/file-20190418-28087-1qotzp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269978/original/file-20190418-28087-1qotzp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustration of York Minster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/york-minster-vintage-engraved-illustration-colorful-402210895?src=2aZXODWqHwsgED-148zojg-1-57">Morphart Creation/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The 20th century has seen a few serious fires. York Minster’s huge 1984 fire was believed to have been caused by either lightning, or an electrical fault. York has been very unlucky over the years, it’s had a succession of fires and without stone vaults over the building, the minster has been very vulnerable. After the last restoration, York had the inspired idea of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/content/articles/2005/10/05/minster_fire_rebecca_feature.shtml">asking school students to design</a> some of the carvings on the new transept vault.</p>
<p>The threat of fire in historic buildings is a constant one, and the people who look after the buildings, on a day-to-day basis, or in response to disaster, are unsung heroes who deserve gratitude and support. Notre Dame, Paris will be restored and made glorious once again – fires have always been a risk, and restorations have always been a part of church history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115658/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Alexander has received funding from: Regional government of Galicia, Spain, to cover expenses for working on a historical survey of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, 2008-13, also from the European Research Council for project, Petrifying Wealth, 2015-19.</span></em></p>Medieval churches have often suffered fires. A look at those in Britain shows that Notre Dame can be rebuilt.Jenny Alexander, Associate Professor, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1157312019-04-18T15:19:18Z2019-04-18T15:19:18ZNotre Dame: how Christ’s Crown of Thorns has survived crusades, political upheaval and a fire (but only just)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270018/original/file-20190418-28113-174hngo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=621%2C45%2C4620%2C2836&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Holy Crown of Thorns worn by Jesus Christ is presented for in a special service at Notre Dame Cathedral, June 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Damann via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the spire of Notre Dame cathedral collapsed in a fiery blaze on Monday 15 April, it looked as if the priceless treasures inside would be lost forever. This includes sacred paintings, tapestries, sculpture, stained glass windows, as well as a cherished collection of holy relics. So it was wonderful to see, the next morning, that the cathedral’s Gothic fabric – which is more than 850 years old – held strong. Its sweeping vaults are damaged but intact – testifying to the brilliant engineering of medieval masons and the bravery of the Parisian firefighters. </p>
<p>As the news of the destruction unfolded, we learned that Father Jean-Marc Fournier <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellievhall/heroic-priest-human-chain-saved-holy-relics-notre-dame">orchestrated the rescue</a> of many relics in the cathedral treasury with the firefighters’ help. With minutes to spare, they formed a human chain and managed to save some of the most ancient and holy treasures in all of Christendom – including the relic of the Crown of Thorns.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270014/original/file-20190418-28097-p7xmqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270014/original/file-20190418-28097-p7xmqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270014/original/file-20190418-28097-p7xmqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270014/original/file-20190418-28097-p7xmqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270014/original/file-20190418-28097-p7xmqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270014/original/file-20190418-28097-p7xmqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270014/original/file-20190418-28097-p7xmqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270014/original/file-20190418-28097-p7xmqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Priceless and revered: the Crown of Thorns relic from Notre Dame cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Crown of Thorns in the circular reliquary in crystal of 1896</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Preserved in a gilded, crystalline reliquary and exposed to the faithful every year for a special service on Good Friday, the crown relic looks like a wreath comprised of brittle but elegantly woven marine rushes. This delicate relic has a long and complicated history and, for the past eight centuries, has been protected by glittering Gothic spaces and worshipped in Paris as tangible, physical symbol of Christ’s kingship. In the wake of the fire at Notre Dame and on the eve of Good Friday, it is important to reflect on the significance of this sacred object and its remarkable survival.</p>
<h2>‘Ecce homo’</h2>
<p>The Crown of Thorns is named in three of the gospels as one of many tortuous instruments used while Christ is being mocked during his trial and punishment (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27%3A27-30&version=NIV">Matthew 27:27–30</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+15%3A16-19&version=NIV">Mark 15:16–19</a>, and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+19%3A1-3&version=NIV">John 19:1–3</a>). In John’s gospel, the Passion narrative is extended: Christ is brought before the Roman governor of Judea, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pontius-Pilate">Pontius Pilate</a>, to face the crowd while still wearing the Crown of Thorns. </p>
<p>This passage forms the basis of the popular devotional image called the Ecce Homo, in which Christ is imagined as the rejected Messiah, scourged and crowned in thorns. The gospels do note state what became of the Crown after the Mockery.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270010/original/file-20190418-28119-e2wt0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270010/original/file-20190418-28119-e2wt0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270010/original/file-20190418-28119-e2wt0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270010/original/file-20190418-28119-e2wt0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270010/original/file-20190418-28119-e2wt0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270010/original/file-20190418-28119-e2wt0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270010/original/file-20190418-28119-e2wt0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270010/original/file-20190418-28119-e2wt0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The reliquary built to house the Crown of Thorns by Placide Poussielgue-Rusand (1824-1889) following drawings of Eugène VIollet-le-Duc.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tangopaso via Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interestingly Christ does not wear the Crown of Thorns in early depictions of the Crucifixion. Christ is shown dying on the cross without the crown (with only a handful of exceptions) throughout the first millennium of Christian art. And the existence of a relic cult is unknown until the fifth century. In 409 AD, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Paulinus-of-Nola">Saint Paulinus</a>) instructed the faithful to venerate Holy Thorns relics in the basilica of Mount Zion in Jerusalem, alongside the Flagellation column and the Holy Lance. In 591 AD, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Gregory-of-Tours">Gregory of Tours</a> offered the earliest known description of the crown relic: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>They say that the Crown of Thorns appears as if it is alive. Everyday its leaves seem to wither and every day, they become green again because of divine power. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270007/original/file-20190418-28084-183er72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270007/original/file-20190418-28084-183er72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270007/original/file-20190418-28084-183er72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270007/original/file-20190418-28084-183er72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270007/original/file-20190418-28084-183er72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270007/original/file-20190418-28084-183er72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270007/original/file-20190418-28084-183er72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Limburg Staurotheke: a reliquary of the True Cross, made in Constantinople in about 950 AD.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Warburg</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>On the road</h2>
<p>Only a few accounts of the crown relic at Mount Zion exist after the siege of Jerusalem in 636 AD, due to difficulties in access for pilgrims. A True Cross reliquary, known as the Limburg Staurotheke, is our earliest material witness to the relic’s new location in Constantinople. Fashioned in about 950 AD, its inscription states that it holds items from the Byzantine emperor’s treasury, including a fragment of the Crown of Thorns. But it remains unclear when or how the crown came to Constantinople, where it was enshrined near in the Bucoleon palace amidst a marvellous assortment of Passion relics.</p>
<p>Writing during a political coup in 1200, Nicolas Mesarites, the palace guardian, praised the survival of the “incorruptible” Crown of Thorns, which was “<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/arthistory/faculty/Klein/Klein_Crown%20of%20his%20Kingdom.pdf">fresh, green, and un-withered</a>”. After the <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/archive/crusades/fourth-crusade-and-sack-constantinople">Fourth Crusade</a>, Baldwin of Flanders became the first Latin emperor of Constantinople and took control of the palaces and their treasuries. </p>
<p>In 1228, when Baldwin II took the throne at the age of just 11, crisis seized the Latin Empire. To secure money, he pledged relics as debt collateral. Around 1237, the Crown of Thorns relic was used to secure a loan from a wealthy Venetian merchant named Niccolo Quirino. Baldwin ventured to Europe on a fundraising mission and approached his “cousin” King Louis IX of France (1214–1270) for more help and the French king agreed to pay off the imperial debt. </p>
<h2>A divine gift</h2>
<p>In so doing, Louis IX would become the new protector of the relic. To be clear, this exchange was not a sale, as this would have violated ecumenical rules. Instead, the transfer of the crown from Constantinople to Paris would be framed as a diplomatic transaction and celebrated as a divine gift.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270008/original/file-20190418-28113-1vr3tzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270008/original/file-20190418-28113-1vr3tzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270008/original/file-20190418-28113-1vr3tzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270008/original/file-20190418-28113-1vr3tzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270008/original/file-20190418-28113-1vr3tzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270008/original/file-20190418-28113-1vr3tzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270008/original/file-20190418-28113-1vr3tzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270008/original/file-20190418-28113-1vr3tzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">French King Louis IX carrying the Crown of Thorns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">From the ambulatory of the Cathedral of Saint-Gatien, Tours</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Gauthier Cornut, a 13th-century archbishop of Sens, wrote a detailed account of the transfer of the crown to Paris in a text known as the Historia Susceptionis Coronae Spinea. He also orchestrated a number of ceremonies to commemorate the arrival of the relic. Removing his crown and wearing only a humble tunic (another holy relic saved during the fire at Notre-Dame), Louis walked barefoot carrying the relic into Paris in a spectacular procession on August 19, 1239. </p>
<p>The parade ended with a sermon inside Notre Dame cathedral before the relic was locked away in the royal palace. Just nine years later, on April 26, 1248, the <a href="http://www.sainte-chapelle.fr/en/">Sainte-Chapelle</a> was consecrated in honour of the Passion of Christ. This shimmering, two-storied Gothic edifice enveloped the Crown of Thorns in a dazzling curtain of Gothic glass and colour, providing an extraordinary stage for the celebration of Christ’s presence right in the heart of Paris. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270013/original/file-20190418-28106-12s9tg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270013/original/file-20190418-28106-12s9tg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270013/original/file-20190418-28106-12s9tg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270013/original/file-20190418-28106-12s9tg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270013/original/file-20190418-28106-12s9tg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270013/original/file-20190418-28106-12s9tg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270013/original/file-20190418-28106-12s9tg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Lower chapel of Sainte-Chapelle on Île de la Cité.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Heracles Kritikos via Shutterstock.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is here that we first find numerous images of Christ crucified wearing the Crown of Thorns, a thoughtful reinvention of Christian iconography that places the object at the centre of salvation history. In 1297, 27 years after the death of Louis IX, he was canonised; the piety of Saint Louis throughout his life was extraordinary, but his acquisition and procession of the relic was arguably one of the earliest and most public demonstrations of his sainthood.</p>
<h2>A new home</h2>
<p>The Crown of Thorns remained in this royal chapel until the French Revolution. In 1790, some of the relics were safely delivered to the abbey of Saint-Denis and, in 1806, Archbishop Jean-Baptiste de Belloy of Paris oversaw the transfer of the relic to the treasury of Notre Dame, where it could be worshipped by all of the people of Paris as a shared, civic treasure.</p>
<p>It has remained in the cathedral, enduring the violence of the Commune and two World Wars, until calamity struck on April 15. It will be housed at the Hotel de Ville during the rebuilding of Notre Dame. </p>
<hr>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Throughout innumerable wars, disasters, other threats from the vicissitudes of time, this small, sacred object – a little cluster of ancient branches that signify Christian salvation – still remains. Loved by thousands, the Crown of Thorns relic continues to serve its purpose – to inspire hope, to remind us that what is lost can one day flourish again and that the things we love, no matter how small, have great power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Emily Guerry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One of the most sacred relics in the Christian world was saved from the Notre Dame fire. Here is its history.Dr Emily Guerry, Senior Lecturer in Medieval History, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1157342019-04-18T14:42:49Z2019-04-18T14:42:49ZNotre Dame: the public and private lives of France’s spiritual home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269989/original/file-20190418-28119-ue5z72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C998%2C655&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Seine and Notre Dame, physically and spiritually the heart of Paris.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iakov Kalinin via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While flames engulfed Notre Dame on the evening of April 15 and the world watched in despair, French president Emmanuel Macron <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bcd5aa90-5fc9-11e9-a27a-fdd51850994c">told news cameras</a> that the Paris cathedral was part of the history of all French people: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is our history, our literature, our imagination, the place where we have lived our great moments … it is the epicentre of our life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Macron hit the mark in more ways than one. Certainly, since its first stone was laid in 1163, Notre Dame has witnessed a great many of France’s iconic moments. It was, after all, the church of the country’s medieval kings long before the royal court moved out to Versailles in the 17th century.</p>
<p>In 1558, it witnessed the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the Dauphin, soon to be King François II. In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself emperor there. And, on August 26 1944, the towering frame of general Charles de Gaulle strode triumphantly down the aisle for a thanksgiving service on the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation – having braved snipers on the way.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Napoleon Bonaparte crowning himself emperor in Notre Dame, December 1804.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jacques-Louis David and Georges Rouget</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Notre Dame is one of the country’s “lieux de mémoire”, a “realm of memory”, to use <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928520">historian Pierre Nora’s term</a>; a place where historical memory is embedded and commemorated.</p>
<h2>Secret lives</h2>
<p>All buildings have their “secret lives” – a topic that Edward Hollis explores in his brilliant book with that very title. One of the cathedral’s secret lives was its part in the “culture war” that bitterly divided France after the Revolution of 1789. The Revolution was not only a frontal assault on hereditary privilege, seigneurialism and the monarchy – it also developed into an attack on the Catholic church, and Notre Dame was one of the most important sites of this conflict. </p>
<p>In the autumn of 1793, as the Terror gathered pace, the firebrands who dominated Paris’ municipal government ordered the removal of the statues that lined Notre Dame’s façade above its great doors.</p>
<p>These, it was proclaimed, were “the gothic simulacra of the Kings of France” (in fact, they represented the Kings of Judea). As the iconoclasm swept through the city, the interior of the cathedral was gutted: all religious images, statues, effigies, reliquaries and symbols were stripped out until all that remained was a bare shell of masonry and timber. The cathedral’s bells and spire were melted down for their metal.</p>
<p>This was the most serious damage sustained by the cathedral in modern times, until the recent fire, and yet (and here we might take heart) Notre Dame would be restored in the 19th century by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, whose work included the replacement spire that fell so tragically in flames on April 15.</p>
<p>The crescendo of the revolutionary campaign of “dechristianisation” came on November 10, 1793 when Notre Dame – renamed the “Temple of Reason” – played host to a secular, atheist festival to the triumph of human reason over religion and superstition. The French Revolution left a legacy of cultural and political division between, on the one hand, the Republic, the secular and visions of a democratic, rights-based order, and, on the other hand, the Church, the sacred and memories of the old monarchy.</p>
<h2>Crisis of faith</h2>
<p>Napoleon Bonaparte papered over the chasm in 1801 by signing a Concordat – an agreement with the Pope, whereby he pragmatically recognised Catholicism as the religion of the “great majority of French citizens”. This was a clever formula that was both a statement of fact and left room for other faiths. In return, the Pope accepted many of the reforms of the Revolution and Notre Dame was returned to the Church in April 1802. </p>
<p>Despite this compromise, friction continued between the church and the state as the political pendulum swung back and forth over the course of the 19th century. Education was a particularly contentious battleground, as both sides fought to win the hearts and minds of the younger generations.</p>
<p>From this conflict sprang the republican principle of “laïcité”. While French people of all races and creeds were free to practice their beliefs as private individuals, in their contacts with the state, particularly in schools, they were meant to be equal citizens abiding by the same laws and adhering to the same, universal, republican values.</p>
<p>Notre-Dame was given a role in this – if only in opposition to laïcité. When the Eiffel Tower was opened in 1889 for the Universal Exposition, itself commemorating the centenary of the French Revolution, it was heralded by republicans as a triumph of human reason, science and progress over faith and superstition. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two of Notre Dame’s oldest inhabitants enjoying the view of the Eiffel Tower.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neirfy via Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The French diplomat and travel-writer <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/page/Eug%C3%A8ne%252DMelchior-de-Vog%C3%BC%C3%A9">Eugène Melchior de Vogüé</a> imagined an argument between Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, between the old and the new, between faith and science. The cathedral’s two towers mock Eiffel’s creation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You are ugly and empty; we are beautiful and replete with God … Fantasy for a day, you will not last, because you have no soul.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The iron structure retorts: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Old abandoned towers, no one listens to you anymore … You were ignorance; I am knowledge. You keep man enslaved; I free him … I have no more need of your God, invented to explain a creation whose laws I know. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 1905, the republicans finally triumphed, formally separating church and state, thereby tearing up Napoleon’s Concordat. Notre Dame itself, along with other ecclesiastical property, was taken over by the government.</p>
<h2>Sacred union</h2>
<p>So Notre Dame is certainly a symbol of France’s past, but not only because of its longevity, its royal associations, its undeniably stunning architecture and its location on the Île de la Cité – the ancient legal, political and ecclesiastical heart of the former kingdom. It also stood as a site – and a symbol – of the culture war: the “Franco-French” conflict between, on the one hand, the country’s monarchist and Catholic traditions and, on the other hand, its revolutionary and republican heritage. These frictions have periodically torn the country apart since 1789. This is its hidden history.</p>
<p>This alone is reason to mourn the damage, because its “secret life” carries lessons for all of us – about the relationship between church and state, faith and reason, the secular and the sacred, about tolerance and intolerance, about the use and abuse of religion and culture.</p>
<p>But happily this is not the full story. In times of national crisis, the French have shown an inspiring capacity to rally together, evoking the “union sacrée”, the unity of wartime in 1914, just as they mobilised around the democratic, republican values in response to the terrorist attacks in 2015. </p>
<p>And Notre Dame has historically played a part in these moments of reconciliation and union. When France emerged from the brutal, sectarian 16th-century strife between Catholics and the Protestant Huguenots – remembered as the Wars of Religion – the Protestant Henri de Navarre, who took the crown as Henri IV, pragmatically decided that: “Paris is well worth a Mass” and converted to Catholicism.</p>
<p>When he rode into the capital in 1594, he immediately took communion in Notre Dame: it was a moment that promised peace between Catholics and Protestants (and four years later, the new king issued the Edict of Nantes, which declared toleration for both faiths). </p>
<p>It was in Notre Dame, too, that the official celebrations of Napoleon’s compromise with the Church, the Concordat, came to a climax on Easter Sunday 1802, with a Mass attended by the entire government of a republic once deemed “Godless”.</p>
<p>In 1944, de Gaulle’s triumphant march to Notre Dame through liberated Paris was a moment of catharsis for French people humiliated by four years of Nazi occupation. And in 1996, the then president Jacques Chirac (also the first French president to make a state visit to the Vatican) helped to arrange a Requiem Mass for his agnostic predecessor, François Mitterand.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">General Charles de Gaulle marches down the Champs Elysees to Notre Dame for a service of thanksgiving following the city’s liberation in August 1944.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Imperial War Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The gesture – and the subsequent papal visit that same year – certainly <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/historians-battle-over-clovis-first-french-king-1306501.html">elicited protests from people</a>, particularly on the left, who defended a pure form of laïcité. Yet that Chirac, who in other contexts steadfastly defended the Republic’s secularism, could as president do these things suggests how far the boundaries between republicanism and Catholicism have softened. Notre Dame is certainly an appropriate site to reflect on this because it is both state property – and officially designated a “monument historique” as long ago as 1862 – and a fully-functioning church.</p>
<h2>Bridges to build</h2>
<p>This is not to say that there are no bridges still to build, or frictions to resolve – far from it. Recently, controversies over laïcité have revolved around attempts to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/14/headscarves-and-muslim-veil-ban-debate-timeline">ban the hijab, the burka and the burkini</a>, which have stoked fears of racism and of the exclusion of France’s substantial Muslim population. And while there is certainly a dark side to les gilet jaunes, they are no less a symptom of deep economic distress and social malaise.</p>
<p>So when Macron, on first learning of the terrible fire consuming Notre Dame, could tweet that his thoughts were with “all Catholics and for all French people” and that “tonight I am sad to see this part of us burn”, he was – perhaps intentionally – almost using the Napoleonic language of the Concordat. His tweet recognised that not all French people are Catholic, while at the same time stating that the iconic cathedral is the heritage of all citizens regardless of belief. </p>
<p>And indeed the rector of the Paris Grand Mosque, <a href="https://churchpop.com/2019/04/16/french-islamic-leader-calls-for-muslims-to-aid-notre-dame-rebuilding-citing-their-veneration-of-mary/">Dalil Boubakeur</a>, issued a press release as the fire still blazed, saying: “We pray that God might safeguard this monument so precious to our hearts.” </p>
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Read more:
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<p>When the reconstruction of Notre Dame begins, the country will be restoring not only a site of its history, but also a symbol of the complexities of that history, complexities that, hopefully, remind us of a capacity for healing, inclusion and unity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115734/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Rapport receives funding from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust for his work on Revolutionary Paris. He is a member of Stirling4Europe.</span></em></p>From coronations to Revolution to reconciliation, Notre Dame has witnessed nearly 900 years of French history.Michael Rapport, Reader in Modern European History, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1156062019-04-17T18:28:51Z2019-04-17T18:28:51ZNotre Dame’s history is 9 centuries of change, renovation and renewal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269659/original/file-20190416-147522-1sukdf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Flames and smoke rise as fire rages in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/France-Notre-Dame-Fire/45328c5873ac4b11befea4f28faad1e9/7/1">AP Photo/Thierry Mallet</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Notre-Dame de Paris had been damaged and changed many times since it was begun in the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3050998">mid-12th century</a>. But <a href="https://www.apnews.com/7538fdb8fc8b476b8c442f0c2ac52115">the fire on April 15</a> might have been its most catastrophic event. </p>
<p>Located on the eastern end of the Ile-de-la-Cité, an island on the Seine River, the site was a Christian church <a href="https://www.academia.edu/30368253/_Avant_la_cath%C3%A9drale_gothique_dans_Notre-Dame_de_Paris_%C3%A9d._A._Vingt-Trois_Strasbourg_2012_La_gr%C3%A2ce_d_une_cath%C3%A9drale_p._17-28_notes_p._491?source=swp_share">since the fourth century</a>. And for a long time, it remained a powerful symbol of church authority. Even today, it is the seat of the archbishop of Paris. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/681954">As a scholar of Gothic architecture</a> I have studied how this and other buildings were continuously adapted to reflect changing architectural fashion and to enhance the spiritual experience of the visitor.</p>
<h2>Key part of religious district</h2>
<p>The current cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady, or the Virgin Mary, replaced an earlier cathedral that was built during the <a href="http://etc.ancient.eu/interviews/the-merovingians-the-lords-and-ladies-of-the-dark-ages/">Merovingian period</a> which lasted from the fifth to eighth century. The earlier building was dedicated to <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14286b.htm">Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3050998">Maurice de Sully</a> is believed to have initiated the rebuilding of the cathedral around the same time that he became bishop of Paris in 1160. Maurice had previously <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/bec_0373-6237_1892_num_53_1_447711_t1_0155_0000_3">served as archdeacon of the cathedral where he also taught theology.</a></p>
<p>Other church officials likely also had a role in this rebuilding as the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3050998">cathedral canons, or clerics,</a> and not the bishop held authority over the structure.</p>
<p>Reconstruction of the cathedral was part of a larger redesign of the eastern part of the Ile-de-la-Cité. This neighborhood housed the church officials, masters, clerics, servants and others who worked to run the diocese of Paris and the cathedral school. </p>
<p>Maurice’s other projects at the time included construction of a new street, the rue Neuve Notre-Dame, which ran from the cathedral to the west – now replaced by the square in front of the cathedral. He also built a new palace for the bishop and a new charitable hospital. </p>
<h2>How structures were added</h2>
<p>Construction proceeded under a series of master builders. </p>
<p>The first part of the cathedral to be built was the eastern part, or choir. This was to serve as the religious heart of the structure where the main altar would be located. Construction then generally <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3050998">proceeded westward</a>, though multiple parts of the building were sometimes worked on simultaneously. </p>
<p>The design, however, was continuously revised during the course of construction. For example, in the 1220s the upper wall of the cathedral, which had already been constructed, was demolished and rebuilt to allow for larger windows. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3051231">This transformed the building</a> from a four-story to a three-story structure.</p>
<p>The new cathedral was largely completed by around 1245, although, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3051253">construction continued</a> in various parts until the mid-14th century. During these 200 years chapels were added along the exterior of the cathedral, some structural supports modified and the <a href="https://romanchurches.fandom.com/wiki/Transept">transept arms</a> were extended, giving the cathedral a cross-like shape. </p>
<p>In my assessment, these many remodels during the Middle Ages demonstrated the vitality of the cathedral in medieval life and the creativity of the builders, as they adapted the building to changing architectural fashions and social practices. The change to a three-story structure, that had <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/988524">become the standard</a> by the early 13th century, is one such example. </p>
<p>My forthcoming book shows how cathedrals, including Notre Dame of Paris, were connected to the daily life in the city. There were <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/rbph_0035-0818_1962_num_40_2_2418_t1_0529_0000_4">markets around cathedrals</a> and also spaces where disputes could be resolved. In other words, the cathedral was an important part of medieval city life.</p>
<h2>Meaning for France</h2>
<p>Notre Dame was the most colossal church of its generation – wider and taller than other European churches of the mid-12th century. </p>
<p>There were several technological breakthroughs made in its construction. For example, it was a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3051231">site of early experimentation</a> <a href="http://facultysites.vassar.edu/antallon/pdfs/tallon-rethinking-structure.pdf">with flying buttresses</a>, the externalized buttressing arches that transfer the weight of the heavy stone vault away from the walls, which can then be pierced by large window openings filled with stained glass. </p>
<p>It was the first French Gothic cathedral to receive a line of chapels along its exterior. These were added to the building between the projecting buttress piers after 1228. Many other cathedrals <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41550554">would later adopt</a> this pattern.</p>
<p>The chapels appended to the choir on the eastern end of the cathedral were the only ones from 1300-1350 <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3051253">to survive</a> the French Revolution.</p>
<h2>Later restorations</h2>
<p>Paris Cathedral played an important role in religious and secular life. </p>
<p>As the seat of the bishop, Notre Dame was the most significant religious building in the city. Its size and luxury symbolized the power of the church and the authority of the bishop. It was also the site of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25618652">ceremonies connected to the King of France,</a> including royal funerary processions and the royal entry, a ceremony in which the city received a new king.</p>
<p>Consequently, it was one of the many churches that were attacked during the French Revolution in the 1790s. This violence resulted in significant losses of medieval sculpture and stained glass and damage to the building itself. </p>
<p>By the 19th century, the cathedral was in a state of disrepair. </p>
<p>A major restoration effort began in 1843 under the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41662942">supervision</a> of architects Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus and Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, which was spurred by a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41201268">larger renewal</a> of interest in Gothic architecture. Viollet-le-Duc completed the restoration work in 1864. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269661/original/file-20190416-147511-azrx99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269661/original/file-20190416-147511-azrx99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269661/original/file-20190416-147511-azrx99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269661/original/file-20190416-147511-azrx99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269661/original/file-20190416-147511-azrx99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269661/original/file-20190416-147511-azrx99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269661/original/file-20190416-147511-azrx99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Notre Dame Cathedral in 1911.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-France-PARI-/b78244079fe5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/1/1">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many of the building’s iconic features date to the 19th-century restorations. These include the crossing spire that collapsed in the recent fire. It also includes the many <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Gargoyles_of_Notre_Dame.html?id=8Y8OexJ99dYC">gargoyles and chimeras</a> that peer out from the upper parts of the cathedral, many of which are modern replacements of medieval sculptures.</p>
<p>The 19th century also saw the construction of the parvis, or square in front of the cathedral, which significantly altered how one encounters the structure. Visitors to the cathedral now have a much larger area from which to view the front of the building which facilitates spectacular views of the cathedral’s twin towers.</p>
<h2>Why it will survive</h2>
<p>The roof of the cathedral was largely <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/world/europe/notre-dame-fire-investigation.html">destroyed</a> in the recent fire. While much of the building is constructed from stone, the roof was supported by enormous wooden beams that sat above the vault or curved stone ceiling of the church. </p>
<p>Details are still emerging about its <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5172160/notre-dame-fire-stained-glass-windows/">priceless 13th-century stained glass windows</a>. And it is too early to say how much of the art work housed in it survived.</p>
<p>The cathedral has stood for 800 years and withstood damage on many previous occasions. I am confident that it will survive this fire as well.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269660/original/file-20190416-147505-1fyg1e4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269660/original/file-20190416-147505-1fyg1e4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269660/original/file-20190416-147505-1fyg1e4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269660/original/file-20190416-147505-1fyg1e4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269660/original/file-20190416-147505-1fyg1e4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269660/original/file-20190416-147505-1fyg1e4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269660/original/file-20190416-147505-1fyg1e4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Some Parisians pray as fire rages inside the Notre Dame Cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/France-Notre-Dame-Fire/f2152428bd9d4181ba2f262a8dd52d9f/62/1">AP Photo/Christophe Ena</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although the 2019 fire may appear to many as a cataclysmic destruction, the cathedral is <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150622-andrew-tallon-notre-dame-cathedral-laser-scan-art-history-medieval-gothic/">exceptionally well documented</a>. Andrew Tallon, a scholar at Vassar College, <a href="https://president.vassar.edu/community/181117-andrew-tallon.html">who died last year</a>, had digitally scanned the building, resulting in measurements of the structure that are more precise than any data previously gathered.</p>
<p>While some parts of the cathedral might be irreplaceable, I believe many future generations continue to admire and learn from this magnificent building, as well as its rich history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115606/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maile Hutterer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Notre Dame Cathedral was long a powerful symbol of church authority - but it wasn’t static. The design kept changing to keep up with the changing times.Maile Hutterer, Assistant Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1155462019-04-16T19:52:52Z2019-04-16T19:52:52ZIn Notre Dame fire, echoes of the 1837 blaze that destroyed Russia’s Winter Palace<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269565/original/file-20190416-147522-vs87xb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On a cold December night, the symbol of Russia's imperial prowess went up in flames.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Green_HermitageFire.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a city graced with remarkable architecture, the cathedral of Notre Dame may be Paris’ most striking edifice. So when it was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/world/europe/notre-dame-fire.html">engulfed by a fire</a> that toppled its spire, it seemed as if more than a building had been scorched; the nation had lost a piece of its soul. </p>
<p>How can a country respond to witnessing the devastation of its most magnificent structure? </p>
<p>As I watched the images, I couldn’t help but think of a similar tragedy that took place in 19th-century Russia – a story I tell in a forthcoming book about how the year 1837 played a pivotal role in Russian history.</p>
<p>Like the people of France who are mourning the damage to Notre Dame, the Russians were rocked by the destruction of an iconic building. Their rebuilding effort might offer some inspiration for a French populace looking to pick up the pieces of their beloved cathedral.</p>
<h2>A palace that symbolizes ‘all that is Russian’</h2>
<p>On Dec. 17, 1837, a fire broke out at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Now the site of the famous State Hermitage Museum, back then it served as the primary residence of the czar and his family. </p>
<p>Standing in the heart of the Russian capital, with 60,000 square meters of floor space and 1,500 rooms, the Winter Palace was <a href="https://www.niupress.niu.edu/niupress/scripts/Book/bookresults.asp?ID=813">among the world’s grandest buildings</a>. The Russian poet <a href="http://max.mmlc.northwestern.edu/mdenner/Demo/poetpage/zhukovsky.html">Vasilii Zhukovskii</a> wrote that the palace was “the representation of all that is Russian, all that is ours, all that relates to the Fatherland.”</p>
<p>Originally completed in 1762, the palace had undergone a renovation just prior to the fire. Historians aren’t precisely sure how the fire started, but they do know that defects from the renovation allowed the flames to spread quickly through the palace’s attics. By evening the structure was completely ablaze, a spectacle visible from miles away.</p>
<p>Informed of the fire while at St. Petersburg’s <a href="https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/about/history/mariinsky_theatre/">Bolshoi Theatre</a>, Czar Nicholas I rushed to the palace, only to learn that the building couldn’t be saved. The best the monarch and his personnel could do was salvage prized possessions and prevent the fire’s spread to the Hermitage, where the emperor’s art collection was housed.</p>
<p>By the morning of Dec. 19, only the structure’s skeleton remained and an unknown number of people had died. The ruined palace “stood sullenly like a warrior,” one witness observed, “powerful but covered with wounds and blackened by the smoke of unprecedented battle.” </p>
<p>“The northern capital has lost her greatest ornament,” <a href="https://vivaldi.nlr.ru/pn000105108/view#page=1">a local newspaper lamented</a>.</p>
<h2>A blow to the ruling regime</h2>
<p>For the czar and his regime, the fire presented a political challenge. </p>
<p>The palace – a symbol of autocratic monarchy in an age of revolution – was now in ruins. Might the swift destruction of the palace reflect the fragility of the czarist order?</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269574/original/file-20190416-147502-12wgc5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269574/original/file-20190416-147502-12wgc5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269574/original/file-20190416-147502-12wgc5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269574/original/file-20190416-147502-12wgc5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269574/original/file-20190416-147502-12wgc5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269574/original/file-20190416-147502-12wgc5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269574/original/file-20190416-147502-12wgc5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269574/original/file-20190416-147502-12wgc5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 1852 portrait of Czar Nicholas I by Franz Krüger.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Franz_Kr%C3%BCger_-_Portrait_of_Emperor_Nicholas_I_-_WGA12289.jpg">Hermitage Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As with Paris in 2019, people expressed disbelief. How was it possible that this magnificent edifice, this national symbol, could be consigned to such destruction? Nicholas himself <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41045907?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">fell into depression</a>, haunted by even the whiff of smoke. There were murmurs that the conflagration was God’s punishment for the impieties of a secularizing age.</p>
<p>Fearing that Russia’s detractors would cast the fire as a blow to the regime’s clout, Nicholas’ allies quickly mobilized to shape the narrative in Russia and abroad. They wanted the country to appear united. And they certainly didn’t want despondency to become the story.</p>
<p>Shaped by these imperatives and especially concerns about the international response, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6CpRAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=incendie+du+palais+d%27hiver&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd0MvAhNXhAhUL7J8KHaQ3CToQ6AEIKzAA#v=onepage&q=incendie%20du%20palais%20d'hiver&f=false">the first full account of the fire</a> was written in French by the poet <a href="https://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/literature/pyotr-vyazemsky/">Petr Viazemskii</a> and published in Paris. A Russian translation appeared two months later.</p>
<p>That text and others painted a highly idealized picture of the response to the tragedy. The accounts noted that the emperor forcefully directed the fire’s containment, submitting finally and humbly to God’s will. The empress Alexandra exhibited pious fortitude. Soldiers were selfless in their fervor to save the imperial family’s possessions. The Russian people, viewing the palace as their “national patrimony,” felt the loss just as keenly as the czar. (An assault on his wine cellar, and the disappearance of 215 bottles, was glossed over.)</p>
<h2>‘Zeal overcomes all’</h2>
<p>To reverse the humiliation of the blaze, Nicholas <a href="http://nlr.ru/e-res/law_r/search.php?regim=4&page=1055&part=395">set a nearly impossible goal</a>: rebuild the palace within 15 months. And to erase any memory of the conflagration, he ordered that the restored palace look exactly as it had before. </p>
<p>Thousands of workers labored on an enormous construction site, blowing hot air from immense furnaces to speed the drying of interiors. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41045907?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Occasionally spurred by sips of vodka</a>, they made rapid progress.</p>
<p>On the fire’s first anniversary, portions of the restored palace were illuminated from within to showcase the progress. And on Easter Night, March 25, 1839, Nicholas celebrated the resurrection not only of Jesus Christ, but of the Winter Palace. </p>
<p>Some 200,000 people visited the building that Easter Day, and 6,000 laborers received a medal inscribed with the words “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41045907?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Zeal overcomes all</a>.”</p>
<p>Outwardly identical to the old version, the new palace featured more iron, brick and ceramic in its structures – and less wood. It now had central heating and running water. It was far less fire-prone than the original.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269580/original/file-20190416-147511-sn624m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269580/original/file-20190416-147511-sn624m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269580/original/file-20190416-147511-sn624m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269580/original/file-20190416-147511-sn624m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269580/original/file-20190416-147511-sn624m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269580/original/file-20190416-147511-sn624m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269580/original/file-20190416-147511-sn624m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joseph Ivanovich Charlemagne’s 1853 painting of the north facade of the restored Winter Palace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/The_winter_Palace_%28North_facade%29_in_St._Petersburg_in_the_19th_century.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1837 and 2019</h2>
<p>From what we know so far, Notre Dame hasn’t experienced the same level of destruction as the Winter Palace. Mercifully, nobody died. Nor has the blaze of 2019 produced the loss of culture sustained in <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/artifacts-destroyed-brazil-devastating-national-museum-fire-180970194/">last year’s fire at Brazil’s National Museum</a>.</p>
<p>Still, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2019/apr/16/assessing-damage-notre-dame-cathedral-in-pictures">the scope of the damage has been vast</a>.</p>
<p>Only time will tell what’s in store for the cathedral. The challenges of reconstruction are great. But like Nicholas, French President Emmanuel Macron <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/macron-rebuild-notre-dame-1518112">has promised swift repairs</a>. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/16/business/francois-henri-pinault-bernard-arnault-notre-dame-donation/index.html">Millions in donations</a> have already poured in. </p>
<p>And if the Russian phoenix of 1839 is any indication, there is hope that a renewed Notre Dame will once again grace the banks of the Seine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115546/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul W. Werth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After the building that symbolized ‘all that is Russian’ went up in flames, the czar scrambled to restore it to its former glory.Paul W. Werth, Professor of History, University of Nevada, Las VegasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1156122019-04-16T17:17:19Z2019-04-16T17:17:19ZNotre-Dame de Paris: From searing emotion to the future rebirth of a World Heritage Site<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269631/original/file-20190416-147499-pne2w6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C3648%2C2566&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">April 15, 2019, 7:34 p.m.: Notre-Dame de Paris in flames. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leighton Kille</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the night of April 15, 2019, in Paris, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWWVD-hZ9h0">emotions were raw</a>.</p>
<p>“Notre Dame is burning, the whole of France is crying, the whole world is crying,” said Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris. “It’s terrible, frightening, painful, a tragedy, a nightmare.”</p>
<p>“This place leaves no one untouched. When you enter this cathedral, it inhabits you,” said Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, in front of the burning monument. </p>
<p>“We will rebuild,” said the Rector of Notre Dame, “we will rebuild.”</p>
<p>In the light of the day, the extent of the destruction was stunning. The cathedral’s 93-metre spire had collapsed, two-thirds of the roof was destroyed and parts of the interior were grievously damaged. But thanks to the efforts of 500 firefighters, the structure of the cathedral itself was <a href="https://www.nouvelobs.com/societe/20190415.OBS11614/notre-dame-de-paris-victime-d-un-impressionnant-incendie.html">“saved and preserved in its entirety”</a>, according to Jean-Claude Gallet, commander of the Paris Fire Brigade. Two towers with their immense bells still stand and many of the cathedral’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/notre-dame-cathedral-what-could-be-lost-inside-1.5099419">priceless treasures</a> survived.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269562/original/file-20190416-147518-j6qu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269562/original/file-20190416-147518-j6qu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269562/original/file-20190416-147518-j6qu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269562/original/file-20190416-147518-j6qu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269562/original/file-20190416-147518-j6qu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269562/original/file-20190416-147518-j6qu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269562/original/file-20190416-147518-j6qu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At about 7:20 p.m. on April 15, 2019, smoke from the burning cathedral obscured the sun.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jennifer Gallé</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Immense emotion</h2>
<p>Of all the historic monuments on earth, Notre-Dame de Paris is one of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41810662?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">“superstars”</a>: its unique history, exceptional architecture and renowned artefacts attract millions of visitors to Paris. Indeed, the cathedral can be described as an <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296316302569">intangible strategic resource</a> with few global equivalents.</p>
<p>Notre-Dame de Paris is first and foremost an exceptional place of Christian and Catholic worship, dating back nearly 1,000 years. It’s a jewel of Gothic art with countless treasures, including radiant stained-glass windows, the <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/16/notre-dame-crown-thorns-st-louis-tunic-saved-cathedral-fire-9219579/">crown of thorns and tunic of Saint Louis</a>, and the <a href="http://www.notredamedeparis.fr/en/la-cathedrale/linterieur/les-orgues/lorgue-de-choeur/">choir organ</a>. It is collectively classified as a <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/documents/111415">Unesco World Heritage Site</a>.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-la-pensee-de-midi-2008-2-page-226.htm">“eldest daughter of the church”</a> in France, Notre Dame is a national and cultural symbol, and has witnessed a large part of the country’s history: all its kings have stepped inside, and Napoleon crowned himself emperor there. Here the funerals of Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou and François Mitterrand took place…</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269567/original/file-20190416-147483-mavbcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269567/original/file-20190416-147483-mavbcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269567/original/file-20190416-147483-mavbcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269567/original/file-20190416-147483-mavbcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269567/original/file-20190416-147483-mavbcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269567/original/file-20190416-147483-mavbcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269567/original/file-20190416-147483-mavbcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>The Coronation of Napoleon</em>, by Jacques-Louis David, 1808. Louvre Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacre_de_Napol%C3%A9on_Ier#/media/File:Jacques-Louis_David,_The_Coronation_of_Napoleon.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Millions of people who’ve never been to Paris have breathed the air inside the cathedral by reading Victor Hugo’s famous novel. While commonly known in English as <em>The Hunchback of Notre-Dame</em>, the original title is <em>Notre-Dame de Paris</em>, putting the cathedral front and centre in title and the narrative. Hugo delivered a romantic vision of the cathedral, as well as passage that describes a fire that took place only in readers’ imaginations: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“All eyes were raised to the top of the church. They beheld there an extraordinary sight. On the crest of the highest gallery, higher than the central rose window, there was a great flame rising between the two towers with whirlwinds of sparks, a vast, disordered, and furious flame.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269564/original/file-20190416-147522-qurfqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269564/original/file-20190416-147522-qurfqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269564/original/file-20190416-147522-qurfqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269564/original/file-20190416-147522-qurfqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269564/original/file-20190416-147522-qurfqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269564/original/file-20190416-147522-qurfqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269564/original/file-20190416-147522-qurfqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269564/original/file-20190416-147522-qurfqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The spire of Notre-Dame de Paris in flames.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Guillaume Levrier</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a direct consequence of Notre Dame’s history, architecture and art, of its place in culture and literature, the cathedral is the leading monument in Europe, with approximately 14 million visitors in 2018. It is one of France’s “primary assets”, the “cathedral of cathedrals”, a <em>must</em> – the actual word is used in French.</p>
<p>World Heritage Sites <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/RIOLP">arouse emotions</a> and emotions reveal <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/lectures/837">shared values</a>. Such emotions were on the faces of all those gathered in front of Notre Dame, the countless messages from heads of state, the flood of heartfelt sentiments on social networks – Notre Dame’s place in the collective imagination and worldwide influence is undeniable.</p>
<p>Speaking in front of the still-burning cathedral at 11:30 pm, French president Emmanuel Macron stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Notre-Dame de Paris is our place, it is our history, our literature, our imagination, the place where we have lived all our great moments […]. It is in so many books and paintings […] Even for those who have never been there, this is our story.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yWWVD-hZ9h0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Such monuments encourage us to identify with them emotionally. They’re keystones to national identity, and can even further <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Heritage-Affect-and-Emotion-Politics-practices-and-infrastructures/Tolia-Kelly-Waterton-Watson/p/book/9781472454874">international relations</a>. The agonised reaction to the fire at the cathedral mixes sentimentalism, nostalgia and nationalism in a way that is deeply linked to the past, as related by historian David Lowenthal in his study <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/past-is-a-foreign-country-revisited/B6FA38F2EB08FB3E35183EE6DEBB81F4"><em>The Past is a Foreign Country</em></a>.</p>
<h2>Creative reconstruction</h2>
<p>Continuing his speech in front of the cathedral, President Macron was unequivocal: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We have built this cathedral and over the centuries we have made it grow and improved it. So I say to you solemnly this evening: we will rebuild this cathedral, all of us together […]. We will rebuild Notre Dame.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Into the evening of April 15 and through the next day, an exceptional effort began to take form: The French president launched a national donation effort, Unesco pledged its support and mayors of towns large and small throughout France stood up as one. The wealthy Arnault and Pinault families have promised to donate a total of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/fashion/notre-dame-reconstruction-pledges.html">300 million euros to the future restoration</a>, and thousands of individuals have pledged their support. </p>
<p>Before the path to cathedral’s rebirth can be mapped out, we need a serious assessment of how the tragic destruction of such a priceless monument was even possible. It was undergoing renovation at the time of the fire broke out, and this raises questions about the requirements for work on historic monuments, and also the level of resources allocated. Art historians such as Alexandre Gady and Didier Rykner have stated that the fire could and should <a href="https://www.linternaute.com/actualite/societe/1789662-notre-dame-de-paris-polemique-sur-l-incendie-de-nouvelles-images/">have been avoided</a>. They state that even if Notre Dame is “repaired”, we have already in a sense “lost it”.</p>
<p>It is near certain that the cathedral cannot be rebuilt exactly as it was before. The fire started deep within the roof, which was under repair at the time. The oak frame dates from the 13th century, and according to experts, reproducing it would require a forest of 1,300 oak trees. One alternative is to use innovative techniques, as architect Henri Deneux did when he <a href="http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Regions/Drac-Grand-Est/Actualites/Actualites-archivees/Monuments-historiques/Cathedrale-de-Reims-restauration-des-couvertures-du-choeur">rebuilt the cathedral of Reims</a> after it was nearly destroyed during the First World War. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269571/original/file-20190416-147511-15dqej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269571/original/file-20190416-147511-15dqej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269571/original/file-20190416-147511-15dqej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269571/original/file-20190416-147511-15dqej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269571/original/file-20190416-147511-15dqej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269571/original/file-20190416-147511-15dqej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269571/original/file-20190416-147511-15dqej2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cathedral of Reims in 1914.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cath%C3%A9drale_Notre-Dame_de_Reims#/media/File:Cath%C3%A9drale_de_Reims_en_1914.jpg">Wikipedia, anonymous.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Monuments in general and religious monuments in particular are fragile. Against all odds, Notre Dame survived periods of immense turbulence in French history, and was touched by neither bombardments nor significant fires, a constant threat prior to the 1752 invention of the <a href="http://scihi.org/benjamin-franklin-lightning-rod/">lightning rod</a>. Until April 15, it had come to us remarkably preserved, and millions of visitors paid tribute every year. Yet the risk of the unimaginable still remained. </p>
<p>“It’s in our nature to mourn when we see history lost – but it’s also in our nature to rebuild for tomorrow, as strong as we can,” former US president Barack Obama said the night of the fire. Notre-Dame de Paris is the heart of the city and of France, and an inspiration for the world. We are all cathedral builders, in a moment of sacred union in a secular society.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269563/original/file-20190416-147487-1dkvtxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269563/original/file-20190416-147487-1dkvtxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269563/original/file-20190416-147487-1dkvtxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=191&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269563/original/file-20190416-147487-1dkvtxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=191&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269563/original/file-20190416-147487-1dkvtxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=191&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269563/original/file-20190416-147487-1dkvtxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=241&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269563/original/file-20190416-147487-1dkvtxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=241&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269563/original/file-20190416-147487-1dkvtxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=241&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Before the fire, during, and after.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leighton Kille</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p><em>Translation from the original French by Leighton Kille.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115612/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Gombault ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The fire that devastated the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral on April 15 is a historic event that reminds us of the symbolic power of national monuments.Anne Gombault, Professeur de management, directrice du centre de recherche Industries créatives Culture, Kedge Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1155712019-04-16T09:28:56Z2019-04-16T09:28:56ZNotre Dame: writers and the shock of destruction through history<p>Images of the skeletal frames of Notre Dame cathedral, enveloped in billowing smoke and flame, stopped us dead on April 15. What is so familiar from thousands of holiday photographs and postcards was suddenly made unfamiliar, strange. The stunned Parisians watching in horror as a staple of their city <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47941794">was destroyed before their eyes</a> brought to mind the faces of New Yorkers watching in disbelief as first one, then another tower came down in 2001, or the faces of Iraqi citizens watching the statue of Saddam Hussein topple in Iraq in 2003.</p>
<p>There are obviously very different political contexts to these events – some acts of terrorism, some natural acts of destruction – but what they share is the strange sense of watching one era of history end in real time: the end of a cultural icon that has stood, in Notre Dame’s case, through so many historical periods.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dame-how-a-rebuilt-cathedral-could-be-just-as-wonderful-115551">Notre Dame: how a rebuilt cathedral could be just as wonderful</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The many comment pieces we will see throughout the next few weeks will talk about the importance of this fire, not only in literal terms but its place in the cultural imagination – the loss of what the cathedral represents, its symbolic value as much as its literal one.</p>
<p>They won’t be the first. These expressions of cultural loss enter a long and storied tradition. Throughout history we have seen examples of writers and commentators expressing shock, disbelief, horror and awe over buildings disappearing before their eyes; wood and steel structures turning, rapidly and unstoppably to debris; of cities turning to dust. </p>
<p>One of the most famous examples we have is Pliny the Younger writing in a <a href="http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/pompeii.htm">letter</a> about the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ashes were already falling, not as yet very thickly. I looked round: a dense black cloud was coming up behind us, spreading over the earth like a flood. […] We had scarcely sat down to rest when darkness fell, not the dark of a moonless or cloudy night, but as if the lamp had been put out in a closed room.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269520/original/file-20190416-147499-1dqxrhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269520/original/file-20190416-147499-1dqxrhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269520/original/file-20190416-147499-1dqxrhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269520/original/file-20190416-147499-1dqxrhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269520/original/file-20190416-147499-1dqxrhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269520/original/file-20190416-147499-1dqxrhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269520/original/file-20190416-147499-1dqxrhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Last Days of Pompeii by Karl Brullov (1830-1833).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Russian Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is not unlike the physical response that Samuel Pepys recorded in his <a href="https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1666/09/02/">diary</a> of the 1666 Great Fire of London:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So near the fire as we could for smoke; and all over the Thames, with one’s face in the wind, you were almost burned with a shower of firedrops. … When we could endure no more upon the water; we to a little ale-house on the Bankside, over against the Three Cranes, and there staid till it was dark almost, and saw the fire grow; and, as it grew darker, appeared more and more, and in corners and upon steeples, and between churches and houses, as far as we could see up the hill of the City, in a most horrid malicious bloody flame, not like the fine flame of an ordinary fire … it made me weep to see it. The churches, houses, and all on fire and flaming at once; and a horrid noise the flames made, and the cracking of houses at their ruins. So home with a sad heart.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Reliving trauma</h2>
<p>These writers typically describe the scene they witness and the physical sensations they experience – an attempt to record the physical experience of the event for the historical record. Writing about an event can also be, in some cases, a form of reliving or reenacting it, especially if the event was personally traumatic. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269516/original/file-20190416-147522-dwamgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269516/original/file-20190416-147522-dwamgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269516/original/file-20190416-147522-dwamgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269516/original/file-20190416-147522-dwamgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269516/original/file-20190416-147522-dwamgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269516/original/file-20190416-147522-dwamgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269516/original/file-20190416-147522-dwamgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Great Fire of London by Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740–1812).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yale Center for British Art</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For many of these writers, there is a linking of the destruction of buildings with dead bodies. <a href="http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist5/jlondon.html">The article</a> the American writer Jack London wrote for Collier’s Magazine about the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco juxtaposes the destruction of buildings with the dead of the earthquake:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Wednesday night saw the destruction of the very heart of the city. … An enumeration of the buildings destroyed would be a directory of San Francisco. An enumeration of the buildings undestroyed would be a line and several addresses. An enumeration of the deeds of heroism would stock a library and bankrupt the Carnegie medal fund. An enumeration of the dead will never be made. All vestiges of them were destroyed by the flames. The number of the victims of the earthquake will never be known. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Edith Wharton wrote in similar terms about the devastation she witnessed on her trips to the war zones during World War I for articles written for Scribner’s Magazine in 1915, published later as <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-fighting-france.html">Fighting France</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ypres has been bombarded to death, and the outer walls of its houses are still standing, so that it presents the distant semblance of a living city, while near by it is seen to be a disembowelled corpse. Every window-pane is smashed, nearly every building unroofed, and some house-fronts are sliced clean off, with the different stories exposed, as if for the stage-setting of a farce.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Fearful and tragic spectacle</h2>
<p>Wharton’s comparison with the theatrical is not untypical. We can see a similar sense of the unbelievable, the farcical, in John Updike’s <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/09/24/tuesday-and-after-talk-of-the-town">response</a> to 9/11 in The New Yorker of September 24 2001:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As we watched the second tower burst into ballooning flame … there persisted the notion that, as on television, this was not quite real; it could be fixed; the technocracy the towers symbolised would find a way to put out the fire and reverse the damage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is also, of course, in all of these writers a fear for the self, even if we know the self is not in danger: “We knew we had just witnessed thousands of deaths; we clung to each other as if we ourselves were falling,” Updike writes.</p>
<p>The particularly strange sense of spectacle that accompanies the modern destruction of landmarks means the moment can be eternally replayed, as images become iconic. </p>
<p>This can link spectacle with mourning, as visual culture theorists such as <a href="https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty/Marita_Sturken">Marita Sturken</a> have noted. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269518/original/file-20190416-147505-195q91l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269518/original/file-20190416-147505-195q91l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269518/original/file-20190416-147505-195q91l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269518/original/file-20190416-147505-195q91l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269518/original/file-20190416-147505-195q91l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269518/original/file-20190416-147505-195q91l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269518/original/file-20190416-147505-195q91l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Notre Dame cathedral in Rheims after being destroyed by shellfire, 1914.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bibliothèque nationale de France</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wharton, writing about the <a href="https://www.peacepalacelibrary.nl/2014/07/the-destruction-of-the-cathedral-of-reims-1914/">destruction of the Cathedral of Rheims</a> in 1914 – another Notre Dame – found beauty in its strange ruins:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When the German bombardment began, the west front of Rheims was covered with scaffolding: the shells set it on fire, and the whole church was wrapped in flames. Now the scaffolding is gone, and in the dull provincial square there stands a structure so strange and beautiful that one must search the Inferno, or some tale of Eastern magic, for words to picture the luminous unearthly vision. […] And the wonder of the impression is increased by the sense of its evanescence; the knowledge that this is the beauty of disease and death, that every one of the transfigured statues must crumble under the autumn rains, that every one of the pink or golden stones is already eaten away to the core, that the Cathedral of Rheims is glowing and dying before us like a sunset…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There may be either sadness or comfort in knowing that our sensations today of something having been irreplaceably lost, of the destruction of culture and of part of ourselves, is not new.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115571/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Kelly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Words are as important as pictures for helping us come to terms with such a huge cultural loss.Alice Kelly, Harmsworth Postdoctoral Fellow in History, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1155552019-04-16T09:12:40Z2019-04-16T09:12:40ZWhy are we so moved by the plight of the Notre Dame?<p>Scrolling through news of the Notre Dame fire on social media feeds was like watching a real-time archive of grief in the making, as people expressed their dismay and sorrow at the damage wrought. </p>
<p>Why is it that some heritage places publicly elicit more emotions than others? There is no simple answer to this question. But the outpouring of grief for Notre Dame is not simply because it is a beautiful gothic cathedral, or because it is more important than other places.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1118035100883726337"}"></div></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/notre-dame-how-a-rebuilt-cathedral-could-be-just-as-wonderful-115551">Notre Dame: how a rebuilt cathedral could be just as wonderful</a>
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<p>For starters, some heritage places may seem more symbolically important than others because we know more about them, through history, tourism or a personal connections. </p>
<p>They are destinations; as leisure travel has given rise to tourism, they have been transformed by millions of visitors, with their visibility only increased by photos shared on social media. Notre Dame has become an icon, easily recognised by many people as representative of human culture, its meaning surpassing, in some ways, its material self.</p>
<p>Many of us will bring memories of visiting the cathedral and our understanding of its significance to the images of Notre Dame on fire, which might explain why we feel so strongly about the destruction of this heritage. As Roland Barthes explained in his influential photographic text <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/497164.Camera_Lucida">Camera Lucida</a>, we interpret images according to political, social and cultural norms.</p>
<p>Knowing that Notre Dame survived two world wars, the French Revolution and the Paris Commune, as well as Nazi occupation and Hitler’s intention to raze it to the ground, may also change our perspective and feelings about this place. </p>
<p>As somewhere that has been included in many works of literature and cinema – most notably in Victor Hugo’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30597.The_Hunchback_of_Notre_Dame">The Hunchback of Notre Dame</a> and the Disney film adaptation – Notre Dame was already part of the heritage of humankind. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-internet-is-reshaping-world-heritage-and-our-experience-of-it-92682">How the internet is reshaping World Heritage and our experience of it</a>
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<p>This can help explain why some places only gain attention in moments of destruction or iconoclasm (the destruction of image due to political and religious reasons) rather than as an icon. </p>
<p>In 2001, for example, the Taliban regime blew up two of the tallest representations of Buddha in the Bamiyan Valley, in Afghanistan. The lack of media circulation regarding this destruction, compared to what we witnessed today, suggests we know the statues of the Buddhas more through their destruction rather than a shared history and values we have attached to them – in the Western world at least. </p>
<p>We should be conscious that all heritage places deserve the same attention, regardless of their “instagrammability”. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGf8r2JSeuw">we have seen today</a>, people sang and prayed in front of Notre Dame, while parts of the roof and the spire of cathedral fell to their death. Although it is difficult to measure the emotional impact from the loss of a monument by fire, it is nevertheless quite real.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115555/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cristina Garduño Freeman is a member of Australia ICOMOS.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jose Antonio Gonzalez Zarandona does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Images of Notre Dame on fire have elicited an outpouring of grief around the world and online. This response raises the question of why we feel more connected to some heritage places than others.Jose Antonio Gonzalez Zarandona, Associate Research Fellow, Heritage Destruction Specialist, Deakin UniversityCristina Garduño Freeman, Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage (ACAHUCH), The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1155512019-04-16T06:31:04Z2019-04-16T06:31:04ZNotre Dame: how a rebuilt cathedral could be just as wonderful<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269449/original/file-20190416-147522-qbcpyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The spire collapses while flames are burning the roof of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Langsdon/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The destruction of Notre Dame cathedral is lamentable. A wonderful icon has been largely destroyed by fire. However, we should not despair. </p>
<p>Part of the reason this loss is so upsetting is because we are immersed in a Western way of thinking that equates authenticity with preserving the original materials used to create an object or building. </p>
<p>But not all societies think like this. Some have quite different notions of what is authentic. Iconic buildings such as the Catherine Palace in Russia and Japan’s historic monuments of Ancient Nara have been successfully restored, sometimes after great damage, and are today appreciated by millions of people.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269450/original/file-20190416-147522-10y8bmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269450/original/file-20190416-147522-10y8bmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269450/original/file-20190416-147522-10y8bmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269450/original/file-20190416-147522-10y8bmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269450/original/file-20190416-147522-10y8bmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269450/original/file-20190416-147522-10y8bmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269450/original/file-20190416-147522-10y8bmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269450/original/file-20190416-147522-10y8bmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">French President Emmanuel Macron speaks with firemen at the cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yoan Valat/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The preamble to the <a href="https://www.usicomos.org/charters-and-legislation/?q=charters-and-legislation/">International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites</a>, (the Venice Charter 1964), states that, “Imbued with a message from the past, the historic monuments of generations of people remain to the present day as living witnesses of their age-old traditions … It is our duty to hand them on in the full richness of their authenticity”.</p>
<p>But in our diverse world, the definition and assessment of authenticity is a complex matter. <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/guidelines/">The World Heritage Convention</a> guidelines state that properties may be understood to meet the conditions of authenticity if their cultural values “are truthfully and credibly expressed”. </p>
<p>Accordingly, a building’s <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/document/116018">authenticity is determined</a> in relation to its location and setting, use and function, spirit and feeling, and well as form and materials. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269495/original/file-20190416-147511-iwa5yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269495/original/file-20190416-147511-iwa5yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269495/original/file-20190416-147511-iwa5yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269495/original/file-20190416-147511-iwa5yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269495/original/file-20190416-147511-iwa5yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269495/original/file-20190416-147511-iwa5yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269495/original/file-20190416-147511-iwa5yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269495/original/file-20190416-147511-iwa5yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Japan’s NaraTodaiji.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Japan’s <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/870/">historic monuments of Ancient Nara</a> - comprised of Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and the excavated remains of the great Imperial Palace – provide important insights into the nation’s capital during the 8th century. These buildings are not less authentic because they were extensively restored after the enactment of the Ancient Shrines and Temples Preservation Law in 1897.</p>
<h2>A palace gutted</h2>
<p>The Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo (Pushkin), south of Petersburg, was gutted during the second world war. When Russian people first saw the damage, they must have despaired. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the government provided the resources to allow room-by-room restorations. The restoration of the Amber Room, one of the most famous palace interiors of the 18th century, is a triumph.</p>
<p>Panels that had been looted by the Nazis were recreated over 25 years with an investment of $11 million. Today, the Palace is fully restored, a spectacular icon that attracts millions of visitors a year.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269477/original/file-20190416-147514-pcxbpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269477/original/file-20190416-147514-pcxbpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269477/original/file-20190416-147514-pcxbpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269477/original/file-20190416-147514-pcxbpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269477/original/file-20190416-147514-pcxbpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269477/original/file-20190416-147514-pcxbpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269477/original/file-20190416-147514-pcxbpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Catherine Palace ballroom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What about the relics and artworks?</h2>
<p>The fire at Notre Dame has endangered <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-16/notre-dame-cathedral-paris-engulfed-by-fire-roof-collapses/11018158">a vast collection of Christian relics and artworks</a> housed within the building and on its grounds, including the crown of thorns. First responders saved many, but not all, objects. We do not yet know which ones have survived. </p>
<p>Does the argument regarding authenticity also apply to these relics and precious artworks? Well, yes and no.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269504/original/file-20190416-147483-1wvqiez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269504/original/file-20190416-147483-1wvqiez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269504/original/file-20190416-147483-1wvqiez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269504/original/file-20190416-147483-1wvqiez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269504/original/file-20190416-147483-1wvqiez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269504/original/file-20190416-147483-1wvqiez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269504/original/file-20190416-147483-1wvqiez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269504/original/file-20190416-147483-1wvqiez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Couronne d epines, Crown of Thorns, Notre Dame Paris.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are two scenarios. The first is that the relics and artworks are partially damaged by fire, smoke and falling building materials. Within this scenario, the focus will be on restoration - and marvellous things can occur in the realm of materials conservation.</p>
<p>The second scenario is that relics or artworks are virtually, or entirely, destroyed. Within this scenario, the artworks can only be replicated, not restored. Such replication would have a precarious tie to the original works. </p>
<p>From the viewpoint of restoration, there is a crucial difference between portable and non-portable artefacts. Other than those that were part of the fabric of the building, the relics and artworks were not made on site. The building itself, however, has a continuity of identity and function through being located within a specific landscape. </p>
<h2>What now for Notre Dame?</h2>
<p>One way forward is to use the Venice Charter (1964) to guide restoration. This would mean that the new materials used in preserving this historic structure would be kept distinguishable from the original construction. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269513/original/file-20190416-147502-coq1so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269513/original/file-20190416-147502-coq1so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269513/original/file-20190416-147502-coq1so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269513/original/file-20190416-147502-coq1so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269513/original/file-20190416-147502-coq1so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269513/original/file-20190416-147502-coq1so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269513/original/file-20190416-147502-coq1so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269513/original/file-20190416-147502-coq1so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Conservation of the city gate in Lecce, Italy, undertaken according to the Venice Charter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gary Jackson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another way forward would be to restore the structure in a similar manner to that of Catherine I’s palace, in which an untutored eye finds it difficult to distinguish between the old and new parts of the structure. Given the extent of the damage, this would be the more aesthetically pleasing and less jarring approach.</p>
<p>Unlike other places of deep cultural significance, which may be destroyed forever due to commercial development, Notre Dame can be rebuilt. With modern technology, it is entirely possible for the cathedral to be recreated with near-accuracy to the original. We can do this and keep the previous building’s spirit and feeling.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115551/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jordan Ralph receives funding from an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and Flinders University to support his research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With modern technology, it is entirely possible for the cathedral to be recreated with near-accuracy to the original. We can do this and keep the original building’s spirit and feeling.Claire Smith, Professor of Archaeology, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders UniversityJordan Ralph, PhD Candidate, Archaeology, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.