Oh great another church fire and all the grifters are nudge nudge culture war as if they never set on fire before. And of course they REALLY love 15thc Flamboyant.

All the images are of the W front so looks like the organ set on fire by the way https://twitter.com/InfosFrancaises/status/1284392645993914368

Eyewitness an hour ago: https://twitter.com/fredericvasse/status/1284375677572132864?s=19

Of course they love 15thc flamboyant so much they confuse it with a 19thc Neo-Gothic church in the same city that somehow they missed burning out in 2015

Superbrain here has noticed a chilling trend! Until recently, fires in churches were unheard of. Unless you went to almost any old church building and read about the history of it. or looked at it. Which I'm sure Daz does all the time

Nantes is the only comprehensive 15thc rebuilding of a French cathedral. Foundation stone of W front laid 1434. The nave wasn't fully vaulted until 1630s. The E arm was built 1840-91. Yes oddly they built it backwards from the usual E to W.

The other thing superbrain church crusaders seem to have missed is the dramatic fire at Nantes Cathedral in 1972 where the entire high roof burnt off. Oh yes like that thing that happened in Paris last year which had never happened before

the thing i love most about this one is the "tens of hundreds of years"

The organ, which I can't pretend to know much about but dates to 1619 is destroyed. The glass behind it however looks early 16thc which is a great shame. Is it c.1498?

yeah, it is my sadness to say the window behind the organ featured some of the original glass made for it, donated by Queen Anne, Duchess of Brittany 1498. L she is presented by the Mother of the Virgin, R her mother (modern face) presented by her name saint.

(most of the medieval glass at Nantes was blown out by an explosion at the Château des ducs de Bretagne in 1800, most of the glazing in the cathedral is late 20thc, owing to the Allied Bombing in 1943, so this is very bad luck)

someone already pointed this out this morning https://twitter.com/madatoille/status/1284401551164035073

I should also put the basic facts in this thread. The fire was declared at 7:43 French time this morning and largely under control by 10am. As there are three separate suspected places of ignition at the west end of the church, it is being investigated as arson.

the plot thickens with these photos of the south transept by the famous tomb of François II and Marguerite de Foix

that's just an info board but the painting above it is a goner. could've been a lot worse this!

Third point is on the north side of the choir, so these were all very far apart

here's a picture, finally. I am pretty sure it was this little canopied seat

The time in the early-ish morning is important because I can tell you, I have been in French great churches at 7am COMPLETELY on my own. So there is no need to break in or anything.

when I first heard "three points of ignition" I thought it was a highly technical analysis of the debris at the west end, but what it actually means is three seemingly random fittings (one of course, being a historic organ) were set alight across the entire building

I think that's all the news on Nantes until they find a culprit. Much less costly fire than Paris, but also at least three historic fittings destroyed: the original medieval glass in the west window, organ dating from 17thc and some Baroque fittings including an oil painting.

I watched a lot of French TV today and totally realised I can't properly understand French. But am pretty sure the statement on where the "ignition points" were wasn't very clear at all. I only worked out where they were via stills on feeds and this page. https://www.journalchc.com/2020/07/18/cattedrale-di-nantes-dopo-lincendio/

nevertheless this is primarily now a criminal investigation with no further details confirmed and expect it to stay that way so it can be conducted properly

The Paris fire was only "worse" because of the extent of the medieval timber roof it destroyed and amount it will cost to reinstate, but basically no art other than the 19thc decorative lead work on the roof and flèche was lost there. In an artistic sense this fire was much worse

the culture war still going strong under the daily mail. this has something to do with removing statues apparently. hostory erased.