GettyIt has been a season of wrath and fire for sacred sites across the world, from the serial arson of three predominantly black churches in Louisiana, to the simultaneous fires at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Israel and Notre Dame de Paris. The third, the fire at Notre Dame, resulted in the greatest blow to the world’s architectural heritage since the near-total destruction of the ancient city of Palmyra in the hands of ISIS a few years ago. "I am convinced that in the near future you will also be able to go to Paris and see the great Cathedral of Notre Dame where it was and as it was,” he writes. Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, whose work represents the most significant portion of Notre Dame consumed by the fire, was an architect with one foot in the past and one foot in the future—a transitory architect and engineer with a love and respect for Gothic style. This burden of meaning and symbolism embedded in architecture is key to the story that Notre Dame tells and will continue to tell—the most important role of the monument.

Source: Forbes April 18, 2019 20:42 UTC