Fire in the world-famous cathedral of Rouen | DW News

A fire on the spire of the Gothic cathedral in Rouen, France, has temporarily revived memories of the devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. However, Culture Minister Rachida Dati gave the all-clear Thursday evening after firefighters extinguished the blaze: No major damage had been found in the church, and the "interior and especially the works of art there" had been protected.

The fire at the top of the 19th-century crossing tower had caused large clouds of smoke. The cause of the fire is still unknown, wrote Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol in the online service X. The tower is currently being renovated and had been scaffolded and covered with a white plastic tarp for this purpose.

Rouen Cathedral is one of the masterpieces of Gothic art and was often painted by Claude Monet. The 151-meter spire is made of cast iron. It replaces a wooden predecessor that was struck by lightning in 1822. Until the completion of Cologne Cathedral in 1880, Rouen Cathedral was the tallest building in the world. Renovations began in 2017. Firewalls are also being installed in the roof truss.

Follow DW on social media:

[TheCrimsonSge]

Fire in a French cathedral? This sounds familiar.

[deep.space.]

Most people first think of Notre Dame's fire. Copenhagen stock exchange's historical spire was also burnt down during restoration earlier this year.

[teleopinions]

What are the chances that a worker was smoking up there and left a cigarette butt there?

[flashflame]

Why do I get the horrific feeling that certain fires are not that accidental???

[stevec]

So many 'restoration' projects have fires! Am I naive to think that the very first task should be to install fire suppression equipment before work begins?

[joekulik]

Impressionist Claude Monet painted about a dozen paintings of this very same cathedral. He was so obsessed with it that he even rented an apartment across the street from this cathedral and worked on 3 paintings of it simultaneously, one each for early morning, noon, and dusk. Unfortunately, Monet's Impressionistic style blurred most of the fine detail of this very artistic building.

[PavlovsDog-klmo]

Is Boeing doing the wiring in France now?

[subfreakuent]

1:19 Bro assembled the whole gang for the interview

[skycloud]

Seems a bit too much of a coincidence that these cathedrals are catching on fire of last few years.

[davidmayhew]

What's wrong with these restorers? New major oversights necessary!

[johndoe-zznr]

Is this the second cathedral that burned

[malcolmabram]

Robin, 'Holy smoke Batman, the church is on fire.'

[Daughterofminerva]

I don't know if the scaffolding took fire in this case, but roofs of old Medieval cathedral are inflammable : they are made of old wooden beams. In fact fires in cathedrals were not uncommon in the Middle Age because they were not built 100% in stone, there was also a lot of wood, such as the beams supporting the roof, the furnitures ..

[hape]

Don't worry! The spire is entirely made of cast iron and definitely didn't burn. Probably some restoration or scaffolding material. Not a big deal.

[DovZeev]

A burning French cathedral walks into a

[ILoveCanada]

Not again! This is shocking, upsetting!

[vintagelady]

Workers can become so accustomed to their equipment that they become careless---welding comes to mind as a cause of fires in old structures w/ dry wood construction. The companies need to take extra care, perhaps have a firefighter on duty at any time that there is welding or any other fire or heat involved equipment.

[fajarkurniawan]

I thought this is old news from years ago

[god]

whats with france and fiery cathedrals 🤔🤔🤔 funny how Dokken has a song called Paris is Burning as well

[PhilosophicalHermeticstudy]

That makes 2 philosophers Stone story churches attacked. Some do not know this secret story of the hidden meanings in these churches but there are some who know the hidden meanings in these places and writing a book on it all is one thing but this is sad 😢.