France will launch an international architectural competition to redesign the roofline of Notre Dame Cathedral after a huge fire gutted the oak-beamed structure and sent its 300ft spire crashing into the nave, the prime minister has said. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, promised the nation on Tuesday night that Notre Dame would be rebuilt – and be “more beautiful than before” – within five years, a timetable many experts consider impossible. “Or, as is often the case in the evolution of heritage, whether we should endow Notre Dame with a new spire. Statues inside the gables had been taken down as a precautionary measure to reduce the load on the weakened structure, Plus said. Notre Dame receives about 13 million visitors a year, on whom many local businesses depend for their income.

Source: The Guardian April 17, 2019 11:16 UTC