Surveillance: Paying Tribute to Notre Dame

took more than two hundred years to build. In just a few hours, that roof from back to medieval times it is gone, of course, the history extraordinary, from the liberation of Paris of the Nazis in to the modern day as well. French authorities they assess the damage and craft plans to rebuild the monument. Here is our Bob Moon.

If there was any good news to report. As firefighters finally got control of the flames late into the night, it was word that they were able to save the two rectangular bell towers at the front of the twelfth century building, Although it will undoubtedly be years before those bells are heard again. It was considered the gem of

French Gothic architecture, painstakingly constructed by hand. Its cornerstone laid in eleven sixty three, and in the more than eight hundred fifty years since it had survived numerous challenges, ransacked, desecrated, and when it fell into serious disrepair, nearly the victim of calls to tear it down. It came through two World wars and through the will of the people, Notre

Dame Cathedral has always managed to rise again. Addressing his shocked nation last night, President Emmanuel mccron declared, as heard through a trans later, we will rebuild this cathedral the place we have it is the epicenter of our life. That was no overstatement. For centuries, all streets in Paris, all roads in France for that matter, led there. But during the French Revolution it was viewed as a symbol of oppression and fell victim to numerous acts of vandalism.

People took swipes at it with axes and hammers, beheading many statues. It was there that Napoleon chose to be crowned emperor in eighteen o four, but by then the long neglected building on an island in the middle of the river Sende was plagued by a lead roof full of leaks. An architect, determined to say the dilapidated building,

enlisted the help of a friend, writer Victor Hugo. His resulting novel, Notre Dame de Paris or Our Lady of Paris, was later republished in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The book helps spark a movement for its restoration thanks to his raptures to cryptions of the architectural treasure has reflected in the nineteen thirty nine movie version of his classic story. In every city they stand cathedrals right this one,

triumphal monuments of the past. They tower over the homes, about people like mighty guardians, keeping alive the invincible faith of the Christian. Every art, every column, every statue is a carved leaf of our history, a book in stone, glorifying the spirit of Frens. Hugo himself summed up its beauty with just three words, symphony in Stone. He helped make it one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, with more visitors even than the Eiffel Tower.

As Bloomberg News Paris reporter Greg Vescuzzi noted, the most visited monuments in Paris. It's about you know, fifty people a day can visit it. It's a terrible cultural loss. Perhaps it was the splendorous architecture that drew so many, or the trove of fine art and religious relics inside, among them the crown of Thorns, believed by Catholics to have been worn by Jesus Christ himself before his crucifixion.

The Mayor of Paris had in a tweet that it and other relics had been saved, something in which New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan found special significance to see that reduced to ashes. Myle my, I remember our song from the ashes, we rise up. We want to rise up with Jesus at Easter, and I believe that there will

be surrising from this dying. Much of the building's attraction, no doubt, was fascination with the heart tugging subject of Hugo's fictional story, shunned for his deformed appearance and death from his years of ringing the cathedral's bells. Kasimodo, here she made me dead. I can hear I've been lately. The ringing had been limited to a single bell, and only on special occasions because it more than thirteen tons, that was concerned it could shake the tower more than

it could withstand. A six point eight million dollar renovation project had been underway for the past couple of years, and much speculation has focused on that as a possible cause of the fire. Now, in many ways, they will be starting again from the ground up. Restoration expert Copoli Crouche is an associate dean at Indiana's University of Notre Dame and says it will take years to even start rebuilding.

There has to be a complete understanding of the construction reconstruction of this building, which may take at least a period of five years. But again, the will of the people seems clear. People who see their lives reflected in a building. Journalism students Celia Heddeberg notes, they are drawn to it still. People have been standing here for hours now taking pictures. Earlier um a group of Catholic people

gathered and started singing different songs. In passing. People are making half hearted jokes about how silly it is to be crying for a building, But to be honest, that's the case for a lot of people here. That's the case for so many people around the world. I'm Bob Moon Bloomberg Radio, BA Moon, thank you so much. Futures

up ten, Features up one fifty six. My most extraordinary sight today of life going on in Paris was Anne Marie Hordern in Paris and behind her on Send and Marie was one of those tour boats going by like just another day. What is the scene now in Paris at about three pm. It's a very good point to because just fifteen minutes ago others wore it came by and they were students and they were all waving to the International press on the bridge to looking on the

east side of northre Dame. It is a mixed feeling in the sense that it is another day in Paris. People are back at work, they're outside cafes. But I have spoken to some and they have been you know, they know exactly where they were less night, telling me they couldn't get to their car because they worked too close to northre Dame. They saw the smoke. They've never seen anything like this. Um and uh. And so many people in Paris are saying it was almost like a

death in the family. It was interesting there. We just heard someone say, why why are we crying where you're upset this is and no one died. But this isn't a this isn't a humans um But that's how they are treating this fire here at Norredame in Paris, almost like a death in a family. And Marie, we have no idea of the cost to rebuild this, and of course Mr mccry has said they will take the medieval

timbers and redo it again. But already I would guess we approach one billion euros at least eight hundred million euros from the Great and Worthy of France's who is powning up one d and two hundred million euros at a drop. Yes, we just had news out that Lourel's the Bettancourt family they're going to donate two hundred million. And then you have these luxury, wealthy families that are in charge of the big luxury companies here in Powers. But not I know is they're going to donate two

hundred million. There behind LVMH, you know, the likes of Christian Dior and Selene and then there's Friends while Pineau who's behind caring they are they run Gucci, they run Alexander McQueen. They're donating more more than a hundred million euros, so ready we have a lot of money coming in. And I spoke to the deputy mayor of this fourth district, she's in charge of where northre Dame is, and she was saying, how this is what they want to get out there to the global world. There's one of the

reasons why she wanted to speak to Bloomberg. She wanted to speak to this audience. And she was saying, the Americans helped rebuild her Pai, maybe they can come and help save this piece of landmark and they will forever be indebted. But it seemed that there are a lot of famous French wealthy families for today pledging millions of dollars to help rebuild the cathedral and re Horden in purse. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg

Surveillance podcast. Subscribe and listen to interviews on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or whichever podcast platform you prefer. I'm on Twitter at Tom Keene before the podcast. You can always catch us worldwide. I'm Bloomberg Radio.