Last night I saw photos that made me think that the south-facing rose window at Notre-Dame had been destroyed by this week's fire. Fortunately, I was wrong. Some research this morning shows me that all three of the cathedral's rose windows, including the Rose Sud a.k.a. Rose du Midi, has withstood the fire and water. My picture dates from my last walk around the inside of the cathedral, in September 2007.
The Rose Sud dates back to the year 1260, when it was installed in the wall of the church. It was a gift to Notre-Dame cathedral from the French king Louis IX, who is also known as saint Louis (b.1214-d.1270). The diameter of the window is about 13 meters (more than 40 feet). There are two other rose windows in the cathedral, one on the opposite (north) end of the transept, and the other in the front façade between the bell towers.
You can see the Rose Sud in the photo above, which I took a few years ago from the "balcony" of the Panthéon in the Latin Quarter. It is the big round stained-glass window near the center of this image, directly under the spire that fell during the fire. The smaller and less ancient window just above it appears in yesterday's photos to have succumbed to the heat of the fire.
Above is another view of the cathedral from afar and on high. I took it from the top of the Tour Montparnasse in April 2002. Walt and I were spending two weeks in a rented vacation apartment about about a five minute walk from the tower, and took advantage go up to the top and take some panoramic and long-zoom photos of Paris. I had a new Canon digital camera at the time.
Speaking of photos from long ago, here's one that I found on the internet showing what the façade and bell towers of Notre-Dame looked like in 1970. This is the way I remember it from my first stay in Paris in March or April that year. I was spending a semester in Aix-en-Provence as a student and had decided to go to Paris for my two-week spring break. I stayed in a hotel in the Latin Quarter and was thrilled to be able to explore the city. It's hard to believe that was nearly 50 years ago.
Photo credit and link
Here's a much more recent photo of Notre-Dame — I took it in April 2007. The black grime was scrubbed off the church back in the 1970s. This part of the cathedral looks the same today, as far as I can tell. It wasn't much damaged by the fire that raged behind it Monday night. There's that to be thankful for.
French president Emmanuel Macron says he wants Notre-Dame cathedral to be rebuilt within five years' time. Many experts are saying that is unrealistic. Only time will tell.
French president Emmanuel Macron says he wants Notre-Dame cathedral to be rebuilt within five years' time. Many experts are saying that is unrealistic. Only time will tell.
Thanks Ken for posting these pictures and everyone for yesterday's comments and memories re the facade before cleaning. That 1970 photo in black and white shows exactly what I remember.
ReplyDeleteI was able to click on your rose window picture and enlarge it...remarkable. I don't know if the Viollet-le-Duc spire was controversial at all, but I loved it as part of the building. Fortuitous that all the statues at the base had been removed before the fire. Wonder if they'll use traditional materials or modern to reconstruct?
Nobody knows what the reconstruction strategy will be. I think Macron has jumped the gun and set a very ambitious goal without first consulting the specialists and experts (seems like something Trump would do). There's an interesting article in the Washington Post today about all these issues.
DeleteI agree that Macron has jumped the gun without properly consulting. Five years might be possible but I think it would involve throwing every resource at the place and not arguing about the approach (there will have to be a discussion around that because of the International Convention on the Conservation and Restoration of Historic Monuments). However, I do believe, based on my own experience of similar projects, that under 10 years is realistic. I was reading the conservator who will be responsible for the glass yesterday and she is not hopeful that it is in very good condition, btw. If it all has to be repaired/conserved/replaced, it will presumably come to the workshops in Tours who specialise in that (they've been busily doing Chartres). I'll read the article you've linked to now -- there have been some excellent, well-informed articles in the Conversation, Washington Post and NYT since the event. It really is an opportunity to educate the public about heritage conservation (and I bet the curators at the newly restored Chateau of Azay le Rideau are heaving a sigh of relief that it isn't them :-))
DeleteIn the U.S., things move a lot faster than they do in France. That's my impression. Maybe it's the same in the U.K. compared to France. If I were a betting man, I'd wager a month's retirement pension that the Notre-Dame rebuild will require at least a decade. Eight years for the arguments, a year for decisions, and... wait, I guess I'd wager two decades!
DeleteI'd look closely at the Hotel de Ville in La Rochelle before I rashly committed my money...
DeleteI didn't know that Chartres was being restored or cleaned, but stumbled across this NYT article with great before and after pictures: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/arts/design/chartres-cathedral-restoration-controversial.html I saw it in 1976 and it was quite dark, but the windows were very impressive. It's good that France has the conservators able to do this work.
DeleteThank you D. for that very interesting article. They'll probably do the same with Notre-Dame to bring the light in and to erase the damage caused by the fire.
DeleteRemoving the parking lot from in front of Notre Dame was a great improvement. The tulips were probably pretty nice though.
ReplyDeleteThank you especially for the photo of the glorious rose window.
Do you remember the parking lot in the courtyard of the Louvre, where the pyramid now stands?
DeleteChris, a detail, but I just posted a new version of that rose window image. I think I had done a bad job processing the first one, so I went back to the original photo and treated it more kindly, so the colors look more true.
DeleteI remember the small lovely park with trees, lawns, greeneries and Rodin's Bourgeois de Calais that was replaced by a park[ing] lot, replaced by a glass pyramid. As they say, you can't stop progress!
DeleteKen, I do remember the parking lot in the middle of the Louvre. The pyramid was kind of a shock when I first saw it, but it's a nice improvement This catastrophe may inspire me to dig through the slides I took on my exchange-student trip in 1963. Thanks for the technical update on the rose window.
DeleteIt is such a relief the three Roses weren't lost. Probably, both transept roses will have to be checked carefully to make sure there was no lasting damage, They might have to be dismantled and put down before being set back into place.
ReplyDeleteFive years!!! Macron croit au Père Noēl. It will require a lot of thoughts and prayers for that!
Thanks for you photos, Ken. This is all so much to take in.
ReplyDeleteI'll enjoy these immensely. You've a great job over the years!
ReplyDeleteIt's going to take me a while to find my old photos. I think I have all stages of the cleaning. First shot was 1968, all black, then 19170, half cleaned, then 72 or 73 all clean!
Hi Eleanor, I didn't take pictures in France before photography went digital — for me, that was about 20 years ago. I've made up for lost time since then. Good to hear from you. K.
DeleteI remember as a child of 10 in 1956 coming from Vancouver thinking that Paris was so gloomy and black. Then, with subsequent visits as bit by bit buildings were scrubbed they didn't look “right”, all bright and new looking!
ReplyDeleteJocelyn
I have that kind of memory of 1970 Paris too. It was almost intimidating at times — scary, in other words, because it was so dark. France was pretty poor still, back then, and was still recovering from the wars of the 20th century. I remember trying to go see what was left of the old Les Halles central market. I was uncomfortable, not to say terrified. It was just too other-worldly.
DeleteThanks for the old photo of ND. I need to find my scrapbook for the photos I took with the camera I had in high school. Your photos from the Pantheon and M tour are excellent.
ReplyDeleteLovely pictures, thank you. I always thought that spire looked a bit odd, and I'd be happy to see the building restored without it, but that may be very much a minority opinion.
ReplyDeleteA Canadian friend passed along a comment that artisans who work in stone and on medieval-type projects are being called in from all over the world. There likely aren't that many of them these days, and they'll be much in demand for this. So glad the windows were saved, and the bells.
There are Olympic games set for Paris in 2024, so that may be affecting Macron's timetable.
Good point about the Games. I always thought the spire seemed odd too.
DeleteWhen I went in 1974, I remember it being very black. It's much lovelier cleaned up. I also remember Westminster Abbey was being cleaned when I first saw it in 1974. The outside of Chartres was being renovated when we visited you in 2011. I'll have to read that article your friend points to above. I guess it's a rare thing to visit one of these ancient shrines and find that nothing is being worked on. Your friend Emm makes an interesting point about the Olympics, so that might be a factor.
ReplyDelete