Earlier this spring, the famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris ignited in flames.

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Earlier this spring, the famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris ignited in flames.

Despite the disaster, it remained standing. Do you know why? According to  Lisa Reilly, an associate professor of architectural history at the University of Virginia and a scholar of medieval architecture, “It’s designed so that if the roof burns off, it’s hard for [the fire] to spread to the rest of the building…. In the Middle Ages, the thought was that stone vaults [could be] used to prevent the spread of fire.”

As in other Gothic cathedrals, when you look up at the ceiling of Notre Dame you see a stone vault. Above that area is the equivalent of an attic space. Heavy timbers hold up the roof above the stone vault. Typically in the Middle Ages, those wood truss systems were covered in pitch to make them more resistant to rot but that also made them more prone to burning. But the stone structure itself is fundamentally fireproof.

The collapse of the roof is also not necessarily a threat to the integrity of the building. In 12th- and 13th-century buildings of this type, the walls are held in place by flying buttresses. “Basically, it’s a structural exoskeleton, with the support system largely on the outside of the building,” Reilly says. Another bit of good news, original construction of Notre Dame took place in 1163 to 1345. During that era, the walls were built thicker than they would have been 50 or 60 years later. 

• Has anyone here ever visited the Notre Dame Cathedral? Why do you think it’s so often visited? (The Cathedral is one of the premiere tourist sites in Paris—approximately 13 million people visit it each year. It was built 800 years ago and demonstrates the unique architecture of the Middle Ages. It also contains a large amount of artwork and religious artifacts.)

• The collapse of the roof didn’t necessarily threaten the integrity of the building. Why is the foundation of a building more important than its accessories or façade? (The foundation determines the structural strength of the entire building. Most of the outer materials are just showpieces.)

The foundation of that great cathedral is a “vault” built of stone—joined together in such a way to produce endurance. Today we are going to take a look at what holds the Church—the Body of Christ—together.

Additional resources:
“Amid Notre Dame’s Destruction, There’s Hope for Restoration”
https://www.citylab.com/design/2019/04/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-paris-gothic-architecture-history/587191/