Our live coverage of the destructive fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral is ending, but you can follow the links below to read more:
The University of Notre Dame in Indiana is donating $100,000 toward the renovation of the landmark Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, according to a statement post on the school’s website today.
“At the direction of Father Jenkins, the University will donate $100,000 toward the renovation of the cathedral. In addition, the bells of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the Notre Dame campus will toll 50 times — representing the 50 Hail Marys of Our Lady’s rosary — at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, to mark the start of the rebuilding process for the cathedral,” the statement reads.
There is no direct connection between the cathedral and the university.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in a televised address to the nation, said he wants the Notre Dame Cathedral to be rebuilt in five years.
He continued: “Throughout our history, we have built towns, ports, churches. Many have been burnt due to revolutions, wars, due to mankind’s mistakes. Each time we have rebuilt them.
“The fire of Notre Dame reminds us that our story never ends. And that we will always have challenges to overcome. What we believe to be indestructible can also be touched,” Macron said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to rebuild the cathedral of Notre Dame “even more beautiful.”
In a televised address to the nation, Macron said he shared in the nation’s sorrow and hope for the future.
“We will make the Cathedral of Notre Dame even more beautiful. We can do this,” he said.
Macron said there will be time for reflection and then action.
A Paris chaplain who tended to victims of the 2015 terror attack in the city has been hailed as a hero once more, after he reportedly entered the burning Notre Dame cathedral to rescue priceless relics from the blaze.
Jean-Marc Fournier, the chaplain of Paris fire service, entered the cathedral with firefighters to help salvage some of the priceless artifacts held in the building, the Paris 15th district mayor Philippe Goujon told reporters on Tuesday.
Fournier had previously held prayers and assisted victims after terrorists killed 130 people in attacks throughout the French capital in November 2015.
A number of relics were rescued during Monday’s devastating fire, which tore through and destroyed parts of the 850-year-old church.
They include the Crown of Thorns, which some believe was placed on the head of Christ and which the cathedral calls its “most precious and most venerated relic.”
He has been praised as a hero throughout social media for his bravery after Etienne Loraillère, the director of the French Catholic television network KTO, posted a picture of Fournier and commended the chaplain.
The full restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral will take between “10 to 15 years,” according to Frédéric Létoffé, the head of the group of companies for the Restoration of Historic Monuments.
Létoffé, speaking at a news conference in Paris on Tuesday, said the site will need to be secured before any restoration work can take place.
As Notre Dame Cathedral burned, Cristina Correa Freile channeled her own emotion by imagining how the church’s most famous fictional denizen — its hunchbacked bell ringer — might have responded to the calamity.
She drew Quasimodo, the Disney cartoon version, embracing the iconic Paris landmark — complete with twin towers. She posted her drawing Monday on Instagram, where it quickly went viral and earned more than 160,000 social media supporters.
The physically deformed Quasimodo is the central character of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” which tells the tale of his obsession with the beautiful Esmeralda. The story was told on the big screen in 1939, then Disney remade it in 1996 as a cartoon.
President Trump spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call this morning to offer condolences for the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
“The United States stands with French citizens, the city of Paris, and the millions of visitors from around the world who have sought solace in that iconic structure,” she said.
Sanders added:
There are not any trees in France that are large enough to replace the ancient Beachwood beams that burned in the Notre Dame fire, Bertrand de Feydeau, vice president of the French Heritage Foundation (Fondation du Patrimoine), told CNN.
“The roof was made of beechwood beams over 800 years ago. There are no longer trees of that size in France,” he said.
Asked if any trees in Europe were big enough for the beams and could be imported to Paris, he said, “I don’t know.”
Remarkable photos and video show the scale of the damage inside the iconic 850-year-old Gothic cathedral in Paris, which was partially destroyed in a fire.
Watch:
Even before the blaze at Notre Dame was extinguished, conspiracy theories and fake news about the fire had ricocheted around the internet.
The most egregious examples of disinformation originated in the darker corners of the internet, but many found bigger audiences on social media.
And big social media companies appeared to struggle to contain the spread of the content.
Here are some of those conspiracy theories:
What we know: Paris Prosecutor Rémy Heitz said that while the cause of the fire has not been established, it was likely “accidental.” “Nothing shows that it’s an intentional act” he said in a press conference on Tuesday
CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan contributed to this report.
The total amount of donations by French business leaders and businesses for the reconstruction of Notre Dame confirmed by CNN so far has topped $700 million.
The latest donations of $28 million come from French billionaires Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, Martin and Olivier Bouygues and the Crédit Agricole — Pays de France Foundation.
In a statement, French bank Crédit Agricole said it was “sharing the collective emotion caused by the damage to this jewel of our heritage.”
The bells on Westminster Abbey in London will ring out at 5:43 p.m. local time to mark the moment the Notre Dame fire began, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said.
She said the move would “underline our solidarity with France and her people.”
“And later this week, on Maundy Thursday, bells will ring at cathedrals and churches across England,” May said.
May said experts from Historic England will coordinate with their colleagues across the area to make an offer of support once the full extent of the damage has been assessed.
She continued: “When it comes to the task of rebuilding, French craftsmen and women are among the finest in the world. As they prepare to embark on this daunting task, we stand ready to offer any UK experience and expertise that could be helpful in the work that lies ahead to restore this magnificent cathedral.”
Workers will attempt to preserve the infrastructure of the Notre Dame over the next 48 hours, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told reporters outside the cathedral.
There is still structural risk to the building, which is being surveyed, he said.
Castaner added that it will take an enormous amount of time to reconstruct the building, saying that the process would take “days (and) months.”
He said there was no suggestion that the cause was anything other than accidental, but confirmed that an investigation is underway to identify the precise reason for the blaze.
Some details of the chronology of Monday’s fire are beginning to emerge.
At 6:20 p.m. local time (12:20 p.m. ET), security guards at the Notre Dame first heard the fire alarm and evacuated the cathedral, even though they didn’t see any sign of a fire, a spokesman for the Paris fire brigade told CNN.
The fire alarm rang again at 6:43 p.m. local time (12:43 p.m. ET). That’s when the cathedral’s security officers noticed the fire, Paris Prosecutor Rémy Heitz confirmed during a press conference on Tuesday.
As Paris looks to restore its iconic cathedral to its former glory, it appears funding won’t be an issue.
French cosmetics company L’Oréal, along with The Bettencourt Meyers family and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, have said they will donate 200 million euros ($226 million) to the restoration efforts.
That puts the amount of donations so far from French tycoons and businesses, confirmed by CNN, at 601 million euros ($679 million).
That total doesn’t include money from the city of Paris and the French government.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has tweeted a video of artworks being carefully removed from Notre Dame and taken away for preservation and protection.
Items rescued from the blaze include the Crown of Thorns, which some believe was placed on the head of Jesus during the crucifixion, and the linen Tunic of St Louis.
The works are being sent to Paris City Hall and to the Louvre museum for safekeeping.
At dawn on Tuesday, as the first blush of sunrise illuminated Notre-Dame de Paris, residents gathered on the left bank of the river Seine to see the damage wrought by a devastating fire that had engulfed the historic cathedral overnight.
“For me, it’s much more than stones, it’s a part of myself that is burning,” said Sarah Virot, 32, who works for a Christian association in the capital.
Notre Dame sits at the French capital’s geographical and psychological heart, on a small island called the Île de la Cité, embraced on both sides by the Seine.
It’s not just the center of the city, but of the country; from it, all other distances to the capital are measured. And so, for Parisians, the cathedral is not just a religious structure, but a shared legacy.
If the Eiffel Tower came to signify the city’s sparkling future, Notre Dame has, for generations, embodied its past. “She is the heart of Paris, eternal and spiritual,” Parent du Châtelet added.
Read more about how Parisians are coming to terms with a monumental loss here.
News of the devastating fire at Notre Dame will have struck a familiar note to many in York, in northern England.
York Minster, the city’s gothic cathedral, was hit by a similar disaster in 1984 when a fire partially destroyed the building.
Both churches can be traced back to a similar time period; Notre Dame was completed in the mid-13th century, while York Minster’s West Window and other parts of the site date back to the 14th century.
On Tuesday, York Minster tweeted that the cathedral community had been “shocked and saddened” to see the damage at Notre Dame.
The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu – the second most senior bishop in the Church of England – said he had held prayers for Notre Dame on Tuesday morning.
York Minster was painstakingly restored over four years at a cost of just £2.25 million (about £7 million, or $9 million, in today’s money).
In terms of structural damage, Notre Dame may be in better condition, since its vault was primarily made of stone, not wood.
Those looking for hope amid the devastation of Notre Dame will be heartened by French President Emmanuel Macron’s assurance that the French will “rebuild together,” and immediate fundraising efforts leading to pledges of 50 million euros ($56 million) and 200 million euros ($226 million) from Paris’ City Hall and the luxury goods and fashion house LVMH, respectively.
Assuming the requisite funding is found, how will the process be carried out?
Before distinguishing between the salvageable and the unrecoverable, immediate steps will need to be taken to prevent further damage, architectural historian and broadcaster Jonathan Foyle explains.
“It’s already a wet building because of the water that’s been pumped on it, so they’re going to need to provide some kind of cover from the elements,” he told CNN.
“The roof’s job was to discharge thousands of tons of water, so where’s that going to go? Every time it rains it’s going to cause damage at this point, so it’s a war of attrition now.”
French authorities will ultimately need to take a series of design decisions over how best to rebuild. To do so, they will need to better understand how the medieval cathedral was constructed in the first place.
But the goal of restoration is not always to replicate the past, and modern tastes and technologies may influence how damaged structures are reimagined.
Read more about the task France faces in rebuilding the Notre Dame here.
