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Comment by gomi7321 | Hacker News Reader

I totally agree with your point that the Notre Dame fire is unfortunate, but that we have to accept it as the Cathedral's history.

However, I think that from an architectural and art historical perspective, we can do more than just reconstruct the Cathedral exactly the way it was. Art and architecture always change with their cultural and historical context, and I think it's one of human kinds biggest strengths to create something new out of old or destroyed artwork.

A great example is the Cologne Cathedral Window, which the German contemporary painter Gerhard Richter designed in 2007, long after the window had been destroyed in World War II: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/05/12/many-colored-g...

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My father was part of the B-17 force sent to destroy the railway station next to the Koelner Dom. They were also ordered to miss the Dom if they could.

He was rather proud that they destroyed the station and missed the Dom.

Indeed. Rather than try to cling to historical accuracy at all cost, we can simultaneously honor and remember the past while putting our own distinct mark on things. After all, one day we'll all be history too, and it would be a shame to deprive students of the past of material. :)

[Greetings to the early-internet archaeologists of the 29th century, btw.]

Even more so that notre dame has been heavily restored by architect viollet-leduc in the middle of the XIXth century. Look at this photography from 1840: the highest peak that has collapsed was not there. https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathédrale_Notre-Dame_de_Par...

Even though I'm not French, not Catholic, not Christian, and have never been to Europe, yesterday I felt this overwhelming sadness and embarrassment about this fire. I was embarrassed that after so many centuries it was my generation that couldn't manage to keep the Cathedral safe.

Though seeing those first pictures yesterday, with the cross glowing as it was, gave me a sense of okayness. "We" responded quickly to a super-unfortunate accident and I believe, based on several sources of comments/Twitter that I've been reading, that we'll be able to rebuild it.

I strongly believe that two-hundred years from now the history books will refer to "The fire of 2019" as a powerful entry of resurrection in the long history of the Cathedral.

The fact that 400 people managed to put out the fire is part of the history too. If this happened 100 years ago, would it still be able to stand?

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