I'm seeing people on facebook posting older articles (couple of months old) saying that there were hundreds of cases of arson and vandalism on catholic churches in the past years in France, is there any truth to this? I dont want to link to these articles since i'm not sure how legitimate they are, the sites seem kinda sketchy
I don't really remember specific news about cases like that... There are usually more reports of mosques being vandalized.
I'm sure the far right here is gonna be in full fear mongering mode though, as always :/
Racists are gonna say that it can't have been an accident. Even those who are not... I mean, my dad earlier said that he found it strange how many fires there had been in Paris in the last months (not in churches but in regular buildings) and that perhaps, "they" were making tests to see how much time it took for the firefighters to arrive. I told him that I didn't see the point and that he shouldn't fall into conspirationist BS, and he agreed (big relief). I told him that it's no surprise that people want to blame someone, because at least there would be a
reason, and the absurdity of an accident in a tragedy like this, the fact that there is no intent behind, can be difficult to grasp. But it is what it is.
I don't thing they were in great condition, infact the whole building was in a relatively unsatisfactory state and it was why they were doing the restoration in the first place. I'm not sure if they were planning on eventually replacing all that wood with newer wood or something else.
I actually heard/saw that earlier in a short segment that had been filmed maybe two years ago in Notre-Dame, and one of the people in charge of the place said that there was no reason to replace most of them because it was still going strong. But yeah they must have replaced some of it over the years though. I still find it fascinating that wood from the 1200s was still doing its job in the structure of the edifice.