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Philip Spiess
I write to you tonight as a classmate who spent the first years of his professional career as an historic preservationist, namely, as head of research for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington, D. C.
I write to say that the destruction today of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris by fire was totally preventable. I cannot tell you how many historic structures worldwide, and especially in the United States, have been either damaged or destroyed by architectural preservation firms themselves, working on historic structures. This, it appears (at least until we get further information), was the case in Paris today, that the multi-million dollar preservation work begun last year on Notre Dame was responsible for the fire which torched the spire (fleche) and ultimately destroyed the entire roof, roof trusses, and, it appears, some historic stained glass, and much of the wooden interior. We are lucky, it seems, at this early date, that the medieval stone structural walls, including the celebrated and beautiful "flying buttresses" of the apse, are intact (though structural engineers will surely need to test them for their stability).
I said I cannot tell you how many historic structures have been damaged by preservation efforts, but I can mention a few: the West Wing of the White House, during the Hoover administration, caught fire while under renovation; the Hyde Park home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, under the control of our National Park Service, was severely damaged in the 1970s; the Louisiana State Museum, on Jackson Square in New Orleans, was damaged by fire in the 1980s; and Windsor Castle in England had a major, and very destructive, fire while renovative work was under way. All of these buildings, fortunately, were ultimately repaired and restored (yes, it takes much money to do so), but, unfortunately, all were caused by careless workers: a still-burning blowtorch left in the wrong place, a cigarette carelessly left near an oil-soaked cloth in a confined area when a worker went to lunch, etc., etc. Architectural preservation firms, of all groups, should know better and monitor their workers accordingly. I expect that a similar tale will ultimately emerge from this Paris tragedy.
The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was, as were all churches and other religious structures in France, severely damaged and left derelict by the French Revolution, which went after the Catholic clerics with a vengeance. It was left to the great 19th-Century French writer, Victor Hugo, to take up the fight to preserve Notre Dame: in 1831 he wrote his now-famous novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, to bring attention to the plight of the cathedral and to address its historical importance to the nation of France (in 1832 he denounced the war against the "massacre of ancient stones"). (Indeed, in Book IX of his novel, in Chapter V, focusing on King Louis XI, the "Spider King" as he was known, the rabble sets fire to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and the king is enraged and calls out the army against insurrection.)
Louis-Philippe, then the "Citizen-King" of France, declared that the restoration of churches and other monuments would be a priority of his regime. So in 1833 he appointed Prosper Merimee, a prominent French author, now most famous as the author of the novella Carmen (1831; later made into a famous opera in 1875 by composer Georges Bizet), Inspector-General of Historical Monuments, in which position he served from 1833 to 1852. It was he who hired the celebrated architect, Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, to work on restoring the Gothic splendor of Notre Dame de Paris. Viollet-le-Duc worked from 1842 through 1843 restoring the facades of Notre Dame (the facades had been stripped of their statues) and the fleche, or spire, over the transcept, which, it seems, is what was being worked on when it caught fire today. It was Viollet-le-Duc who also, in a move to be historically accurate, decreed that the roof of Notre Dame would not use the metal roof trusses, then coming into use, but would utilize the ancient design of Gothic wooden roof trusses and a wooden (not lead-lined) roof cover. Therefore, that is what burned and brought down the whole roof structure today, setting fire to the rest of the building.
As a believer in the importance for historical memory of historic preservation, I remain appalled at the sometimes casual nature with which preservation firms -- which should know better, certainly by now -- undertake their work. This was, as I said, an avoidable tragedy.
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