When I think of Notre Dame, something comes to mind: The Hunchback of Notre Dame. That film was interesting.
I sometimes wondered why there is a film called Igor. The hunchback is called Igor. The main character has become a Mad Scientist himself. His attempt at creating an evil monster backfires.
The real situation at the Notre Dame Cathedral is not funny, though. French President Emmanuel Macron says Paris' iconic Notre Dame cathedral will be rebuilt in about 5 years. Architects have challenges with this massive plan. Some local residents are concerned about lead emissions that were released as the cathedral burned and the lead spire smoldered. The interesting video from Youtube describes the situation.
Pictured above is a small paper model of the Notre Dame de Paris. You could buy one of these toys for a few dollars to put the pieces together. Rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral is the problem France needs to solve. Nobody could have predicted that such a huge fire would happen on a famous historical building. It is amazing how much money has been donated already to rebuild the building - more than a billion dollars. It is fortunate that some 200,000 bees inhabiting hives on the roof of Notre-Dame cathedral survived the inferno.
Notre-Dame de Paris means "Our Lady of Paris" is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral is considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. It is believed that before the period of Christianity in France, a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter stood on the site of Notre-Dame. Evidence for this is the Pillar of the Boatmen, discovered in 1710. In July 1801, Napoleon Bonaparte signed an agreement to perform restorations to the cathedral.
The cathedral had modern renovations. The stone masonry of the cathedral's exterior had deteriorated in the 19th and 20th century due to increased air pollution in Paris, which accelerated erosion of decorations and discolored the stone. By the late 1980s, several gargoyles and turrets had fallen off or become too loose. A decade-long renovation program began in 1991 and replaced much of the exterior. A discreet system of electrical wires, not visible from below, was also installed on the roof to deter pigeons. The west face was cleaned and restored in time for millennium celebrations in December 1999.
On 15 April 2019 the cathedral caught fire. This caused the collapse of the spire, the oak frame and lead roof. Amazingly, the cathedral escaped complete destruction. The structural damage was not severe enough to cause a total collapse. French President Emmanuel Macron vowed that Notre-Dame would be restored. Approximately 500 firefighters helped to battle the fire. Many artifacts were saved. An international architectural competition will be launched to redesign the roof and spire.
Built in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris received one of its most significant overhauls between 1844 and 1864.
The Igor of Notre Dame
ReplyDeleteCast: Quasimodo - Igor (film of the same name)
The Igor of Notre Dame read-along
Igor from Notre Dame is interesting. What imagination.
ReplyDelete"What must I do?" he asked the reverend.
ReplyDeleteReverend Hedges advised him, "Care for the child, and raise it as your own."
Dooku was not pleased, but he agreed on the condition that we at the church kept the child in the cathedral's bell tower where he can never be seen by anyone. Dooku gave the child the name, "Igor".
Twenty years have passed, and Igor now a young man with a hunch on his back, had become the bell ringer of Notre Dame. He spent his time alone in the bell tower, carving a tiny model of the city where he longed to be, but could never be since Dooku always told him he'd never fit in out there. He also told him a lie that his mother abandoned him as a child.
"I know you helped her ESCAPE!" Dooku yelled furiously at the hunchback, slamming the figure on the table and making Igor jump. "And now all of Paris is burning, because of you!"
ReplyDeleteIgor said, frightened, "But she was kind to me, master."
"You idiot! That wasn't kindness, it was cunning!"