On 15 April 2019, Notre Dame de Paris caught fire during renovations. The world watched, aghast, as the eight-centuries-old edifice burned. We gasped when the spire collapsed. We were mourning history. It felt as if our grip on the hands of those who'd gone before us were slipping: they'd reached out from the past to share something with us, and we'd lost it.

It could have been worse: no people were hurt. Precious artefacts were saved. Detailed plans exist. There will be rebuilding. Still, a thread has been broken. In tribute to those folks back there who could take a century and a half or so to erect a building, we'd like to offer you a few 19th-century images of the grand cathedral. May she rise again in glory.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

29.04.19 Front Page

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