Notre-Dame fire: What's been lost, what's been saved and where there's hope

As the smoke clears around Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, relief that hundreds of firefighters were able to save the centuries-old Gothic landmarkfrom complete collapse is mixed with uncertaintyover just how much irreplaceable history and culturewent up in flames during Monday's devastating fire.

Both French President Emmanuel Macron and Paris MayorAnne Hidalgotried to cut through the sadness after the blaze destroyed the UNESCO World Heritage site'sroof and toppled its iconic spire. Its two bell towers are still standing, and Macron has announced an international fundraising campaign to reconstruct the iconic pieceof Paris's history dating all the way back to 1163, when construction on the cathedral began.

Hidalgoexpressed gratitude that a significant collection of artwork and holy objects kept inside the Catholicchurch hadbeen recovered.

But amid that optimism, it's not yet known what has become of many items listed on the cathedral's website as"the masterpieces of Notre-Dame,"which include centuries-oldstatues, stained glass, organs and bells.

A French cultural heritage expert said France no longer has trees big enough to replace ancient wooden beams that burned in thefire.

Bertrand de Feydeau, vice-president of preservation group Fondation du Patrimoine, told France Info radio that the wooden roof that went up in flames was built with beams more than 800 years ago from primary, or old-growth,forests.

Speaking Tuesday, he said the cathedral's roof cannot be rebuilt exactly as it was before the fire because "we don't, at the moment, have trees on our territory of the size that were cut in the 13th century."

He said the restoration work will have to use new technologies to rebuild the roof.

Fears of lost history as Notre -Dame Cathedral goes up in flames

5 years ago

Duration 2:14

The magnitude of the loss in Paris is huge. Not only is the skyline now changed, but so much history has potentially disappeared as the famed Notre-Dame Cathedral was engulfed by flames.

Notre-Dame is especially important to Catholics and for the people of France,said FatherJames Farge, a Catholic priest andhistorian at St. Michael's College at theUniversity of Toronto, who lived in Paris for a total of about seven years and regularly attended the cathedral.

"I've been in that place hundreds of times and it's always just moved me," Farge said. "It just took your breath away."

He believes thecathedral, which attracts thousands of visitors every day, holds broad significance.

"I think everyone who understands the importance of culture and historywould be devastated by this event," he said.

Here are some of the key historical, architectural and cultural features threatened by the fire and what's known about how they have fared.

Statues

Notre-Dame Cathedral was"full to the brim" of statues and sculptures, saidAlexander Andre, a professor of Latin andMedieval Studies at the University of Toronto.

Much of Andre's researchfocuses on the 12th and 13th centuries in France including Paris, where he has lived.

Photos taken on Monday night showed that at least some statuesinside the cathedral appeared to be intact afterthe fire.

Some bronze statueswere removed from the cathedral last week, which wasundergoing renovations, and are believed to be safe.

All of that is goodnews but the full extent of the damage can't yet be known,Andresaid.

"There's lots of things that you see [standing in the cathedral] ... but there's alsoeven more things that you can't see because it's built so high up," he said.

There are sculptures and statues built into the walls, pillars and masonry, "many of them far up towards the ceiling," he said. Those works of art,many of which aren't easilyvisible from below,includedepictions of scenesfrom the Bible, gargoyles and royal figures, he said.

It's unlikely statues located up highremained untouched by thefire that destroyed the cathedral's roof and spire, Andre said.

Somestatues were made of wood and were likely destroyed, he said.

Others made of stone may "crack orbe otherwise damaged" if they survived.

Stained glass

According to its website, Notre-Dame Cathedral's threerosewindows "constitute one of the greatest masterpiecesof Christianity."

Dating back to the 1200s, that round "rose" style of brilliantly coloured glass is a hallmark of Gothic cathedrals,Andre said.

The largest of the rose windows "La Rose Sud" (the South Rose) has a diameter of 12.9 metres, the church's website says.

The stained glass artistry is"invaluable" and"very, very difficult to replicate,"Andresaid."So much has been lost in terms of, you know,crafts and arts [from that time]."

Much of the glasswork "is from the 13th century," Farge added."And, you know, in the Second World War, they would have taken it all out and put it in boxes and taken it out to the country. But now it's in danger."

Fears that the fire may have melted orotherwise destroyed the stained glass were eased at least for the rosewindows on Tuesday, when Notre-Dame's heritage director said all three of them had survived.

They may, however, have been damaged by the heat of the fire and will be assessed by an expert, Laurent Prades told The Associated Press.

Other stained glass windows in the cathedral includeLes vitraux du clotre the windows of the cloister which depict the life of St.Genevive, the patron saint of the city of Paris; and Les verrires hautes de la nef the high windows of the nave. The nave is the central part of the church.

The Great Organ

Le Grand Orgue (the Great Organ) dates back to the 1700s and is "an enormous instrument" capable of filling the huge cathedral with sound, saidJohn Paul Farahat, director of music atSt. Basil's Church at St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto.

Farahatperformed a concert on that organ at Notre-Dame Cathedralin 2015 an experience he had always dreamed of and will never forget.

"There's nothing like it," Farahat said. "I walked away thinking, 'You are basically standing on the shoulders of giants.'"

The "best and brightest organists" in the world have played the Great Organ, which has about 8,000 pipes. By comparison, the organ in his home church in Toronto has about 3,500 pipes, he said.

Even just walking into the organ loft,located high up in Notre-Dame Cathedral, "was absolutely surreal," Farahat remembers.

"They'd obviously just finished a service, and you could see the evening light streaming through the stained glass window and just these clouds of incense billowing up toward the ceiling.It was absolutely stunning."

Watching news imagesof the fire tearing through that same beloved place on Monday was "heartbreaking," hesaid.

Farahat worried that the Great Organ, made of wood and metal and located high up, close to the fire,would not have escaped the effects ofthe intense heat.

But on Tuesday, thedeputy mayor of Paris said the organ remained intact. Emmanuel Gregoire told BFMTV that a plan to protect Notre-Dame's treasures was rapidly and successfully activated.

Bells

The cathedral has several bells, each with a name and corresponding to a different note. The two in the south bell tower are named Emmanuel and Marie, and the eight bells in the north tower are named (from lowest to highest): Gabriel, Anne-Genevive, Denis, Marcel, tienne, Benot-Joseph, Maurice and Jean-Marie.

The Paris fire service said it was able to stop the flames from spreading to the north tower.

That's goodnews not only for the bells themselves, saidAndre, but also because it may have prevented further damage to the cathedral had the heavy bells fallen.

Religious treasures

"The Crown of Thorns, the tunic of St. Louis and many other major artifacts are now in a safe place," Hidalgo, Paris's mayor,wrote in a tweet thanking firefighters and others who worked to save the historic and religioustreasures.

The Crown of Thorns is believed in the Christian faithto have been worn by Jesus Christ when he was crucified, saidAndre. It's usually kept away from the public and brought outonly on certain occasions, such as Good Friday.

The mayor did not specifically mention another significant Christian artifact housed in Notre-Dame Cathedral: a"piece of the True Cross."

That's believed to be part of the cross that Christ carried, which was eventually divided up and distributed to different European churches in the Middle Ages,Andre said.

Artworks that were removed from the cathedral during the blaze were first moved to the city hall and will be transferred to the Louvre Museum, according to France's culture minister, Franck Riester.