REPORTAGE
Despite a revolution, two world wars and a few other misadventures, such as a previous fire in 1972 and violent hailstones in the early 1990s, the large glass roof of Nantes cathedral had nevertheless held out since its installation in 1507. Last Saturday , the flames and the heat got the better of this jewel of the building. Now an army of experts and scientists are looking at what they can still save.
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"Beautiful pieces" preserved from the flames
“I was really, really worried when a witness said to me: 'I heard the sound of a broken light bulb. I thought: ohlala, everything exploded.' Claudine Loisel, specializing in stained glass at the Historical Monuments Research Laboratory, initially believed in a real disaster. The scientist, who also worked on Notre-Dame de Paris, arrived Thursday in Nantes, where a rather pleasant surprise awaited her: of the 25 panels making up this 16th century stained glass window, not everything has disappeared.
"We have beautiful pieces, I think we can remake some of the heads of characters," says Claudine Loisel. "Obviously, with the temperature of the fire, glasses have melted. They are not recoverable, but they will be able to talk, give us information on their chemical composition", explains this restorer.
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Restore the original stained glass or create a new canopy
Since Friday, around twenty researchers and students have been carefully collecting any debris. This research should take two weeks. "We are going to reference the areas for which we find pieces, which will then be stored in crates," continues Claudine Loisel. From the pieces found, we will know if it is possible to reconstruct all or part of the puzzle, or to incorporate pieces of the original stained glass in a new composition.