Notre-Dame 'central to France'
More than €800 million has been pledged to help repair the damage to the iconic Notre-Dame cathedral after it was partially destroyed by a fire this week.
A host of companies, government organisations and banks have promised to help repair the historic building, which lost its spire and a large part of its roof on Monday night.
Business magnates such as Francois-Henri Pinault and the Arnault family in France have pledged to give €100 million and €200 million respectively, while L'Oréal, JCDecaux and the Île-de-France region have also promised millions in donations, bringing the total to over €800 million so far.
More than 400 firefighters were called in on Monday night to battle the blaze, which is thought to have started in the attic of the cathedral, seen as one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture.
The fire took nine hours to get under control, with two members of police and one firefighter receiving minor injuries. There were no casualties reported as a result of the fire, the cause of which remains unknown.
Dr Patrick Crowley, Head of the Department of French in UCC, paid tribute to the ravaged cathedral, saying it was “central to France in many ways” given its historical and cultural significance.
“Its presence over 800 years has provided a material, visible cultural link to France's past and to France's story of itself,” he said.
“Its statues were defaced during the Revolution; Napoleon had himself crowned emperor there; De Gaulle had a mass celebrated to mark the liberation of Paris in 1944. Notre-Dame is the point zero from which all distances from Paris are calculated, and in that sense you could say that it's France's central point spatially, and its key physical trace across time.
“But there's more to it than that - the building of the cathedral took over a 100 years. The front two towers represent a monumental front, but the view from behind the cathedral from the Left Bank displays the intricate delicate beauty of its flying buttresses. And the rose windows captured the extraordinary talent of medieval artists to capture the key stories of the bible through precise images.”
In a televised address following the fire, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to rebuild the cathedral within five years, in time for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.