The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is one of the most famous among the Gothic Cathedrals of the middle ages. It is distinguished for its size, architecture, and antiquity. Let me first give you a heads-up about Gothic architecture.
Gothic architecture is fairly recognizable because of its large walls of stained-glass windows which allows light for large open spaces and create a heavenly environment. They were certainly the most creative architects of the middle ages yet they used traditional methods. The most important feature of Gothic architecture was the pointed arch. It let them make high rise structures with much more efficient because of the fact that weight distribution is much better in pointed arch systems than in round arches. Many Islamic monuments were build using the same concept at that time.
Notre-Dame de Paris is a milestone that represents the sheer beauty of Gothic architecture. It lies on the remains of two churches which were themselves predated by Gallo-Roman temple for their God Jupiter. The foundation stone of this marvel was laid by Pope Alexander-3 in 1163. The church went through several damages and destruction over the centuries. After the French Revolution, it was rescued from Napoleon who crowned himself as the king in the Cathedral in 1804. In the 19th century, it went through major restorations by the French.
Monday, April 15th, a ravaging fire broke out during the restoration campaign which destroyed the Cathedral’s attic, the roof, some of its rib vaulting and its 19th-century spire. It may amaze you to know that 15th April is a date which has had cataclysm as its ally in the past as well.
The death of the great American President, Abraham Lincoln
The sinking of the Titanic
Boston Marathon Bombings
The Hillsborough disasters that took 96 lives.
Notre Dame Cathedral Fire
Now, just after hours of the news spread about Notre Dame, donations and charity from the French corporations and billionaires started hitting. French luxury and cosmetics group L’Oréal along with its principal shareholder Bettencourt Meyers family donated about 200 million Euros for repairs and reconstruction of Notre Dame. François-Henri Pinault, the chairman of the luxury group Kering which includes Gucci and Saint Laurent has donated 100 million Euros for the reconstruction as well. His donation was doubled Tuesday morning by Bernard Arnault, chairman, and CEO of luxury group LVMH which includes Moet, Chandon, and Dior.
Till now over 800 million Euros have been received by Notre Dame and that’s not it because several more are still in queue to donate including the Apple CEO Tim Cook.
According to most of us, it’s more than 850 years of history which deserves to be preserved. But, is it what the world needs today? 800 million Euros for the restoration while some 795 million people globally still do not have food to sustain a healthy lifestyle. That’s about 1 in every 9 people. The vast majority of this lies in developing countries where about 12.9 percent of the population is undernourished.
History needs to be preserved, but getting 800 million for restoration while about the same number of people starve daily looks absurd to me.
No offense to anybody’s sentiments or beliefs!
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