The reliquary rooster of the Notre-Dame de Paris spire, which was thought to have melted in Monday's fire, was found on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Ministry of Culture told AFP, confirming a tweet. President of the French Federation of Building Jacques Chanut. He confirmed the information of Jacques Chanut who announced in a tweet that a restaurateur "found in the rubble cock from the top of the arrow of #OurDame", with the support of two photos of this man holding in his hands a rooster of green color.
Unbelievable! One of our members of the @GMHistoriques found in the rubble the rooster of the top of the arrow of #OurDame His intuition was good! Thank you to our passionate heritage builders for their commitment: The French know-how is there. # ReconstruireNotreDamepic.twitter.com / EG2yyj28Bm
- Jacques CHANUT (@chanutj) April 16, 2019"The clergy has recovered the rooster," added the spokesman of the ministry without further details. According to a source at the Ministry of Culture quoted in Le Parisien , "it is dented but probably restorable, as it is depressed, we have not yet been able to verify if the relics are still there."
The rooster has "fallen on the right side"
The arrow "fell into the nave but, in its fall, the rooster broke loose and fell on the right side, on a side-aisle, perhaps on the walkway, in any case out of the home. "fire," continued this manager. The twelve apostles and four monumental evangelists who adorned the roof of Notre-Dame escaped the disaster: just last week, they arrived last week near Périgueux to be restored. These verdigris statues were installed during the reconstruction of the spire of the cathedral, conducted in 1859-1860 by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The original spire was built in 1250, then dismantled in the years 1786-1792.
But the cock was considered melted after the fire. "Unfortunately the cock has melted," said Tuesday Patrick Palem, former CEO but still advising the Socra, the company of Marsac-sur-l'Isle, Dordogne, responsible for restoring the 16 copper statues. This rooster, also of repousse copper, shelters according to the Church relics of saint Genevieve and saint Denis, as well as a fragment of the crown of thorns of Christ, supposed to protect the Parisians.