© Photo Sdis 37The 12th century église Saint-Georges in the town of Descartes, an hour southwest of Saint-Aignan on the Creuse river, was struck by lightning last Sunday 09 July 2023 at 7:30 a.m. As you can see in the photo above, the roof was set on fire. It's reminiscent of what happened at Notre-Dame de Paris a few years ago. The wooden trusses holding up the roof collapsed into the church. Let me hasten to add that I didn't take these photos; I got them off the internet and I'm including copyright information.
© Photo NR Mariella EsvantThis incident makes me wonder again about the wisdom of restoring Notre-Dame de Paris with a wooden roof structure rather than steel or concrete trusses. What if ligtning hits Notre-Dame cathedral and sets it on fire again? I think the job of restoring the cathedral in Paris is nearly done, so it's too late now.
Here is what the église St-Georges looked like before the fire. I haven't found a lot of information about the interior of the church, but I've read that certain element of it are listed as monuments historiques. I have never been inside. The town of Descartes (pop. 3,300) is named for the philosopher René Descartes — of Je pense, donc je suis fame — it was his birthplace. 
This is the kind of accident that has happened through the ages, destroying many churches and chateaus. A few years before Notre-Dame, it was the cathedral in Nantes whose roof went up in flames. As for Notre-Dame, I thought they would use aluminum, much lighter than wood, for replacing the frame in order to relieve the stress on the pillars, way up in the attic where nobody sees it. They didn’t ask me!
ReplyDeleteThe cathedral at Reims has concrete trusses, which were put there after the older wooden once were destroyed during the 1914-18 war. Another cathedral, I remember reading, has steel trusses. But I can't remember which one.
DeleteI think the cathedral with metal trusses is Chartres.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see if they rebuild, or do something on a more modest scale.
ReplyDeleteA sad event. Very dramatic photo!
ReplyDeleteStunning photo and sad to see this old church burn. Maybe they are trying to be historically accurate by restoring the roof with wood? Or playing the odds. It made it 800 years without a fire before?
ReplyDeleteYes, Diogenes, the decision was made after much discussion between the church (owners of N-D), the fire department of Paris, and, of course, Macron and the government who were sadly imo, in the camp of returning the Cathedral to the historical condition of the original construction. Here, in the U.S., all business building (if I am not mistaken) are required to have internal construction with metal instead of wood 2x4/s simply because of the fire resistance benefit. I hadn't even considered lightning strikes.
DeleteThanks for that Mary. Interesting!
DeleteMary, all church buildings belong to the State. So, Notre-Dame doesn’t belong to the Catholic Church, they just use it.
DeleteNo Mary, the Catholic Church (CC) doesn’t own Notre-Dame, the French State does, as it does all churches in France. The CC can use them, certainly free of charge, for their religious offices.
DeleteI don’t know about mosques and temples. I guess it’s probably the same.
Merci, chm. Maintenant, je l'ai su. I stand corrected (!)
DeleteMerci, chm. Maintenant, je l'ai su. I stand corrected (!).
DeleteWow, what an unsettling view that is, with those bright orange and yellow flames. Thanks for telling us about this, Ken.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about the concrete and metal trusses of Reims and Chartres!
A sad day.
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn
How sad! Most of what we hear about France skips this sort of news, so thank you for telling us. Chrissoup
ReplyDelete