Firefighters have extinguished a blaze in the spire of Rouen cathedral (11 July), saving the French medieval landmark which was featured in more than 30 works by Claude Monet.
City mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol posted on the social media platform X around midday that “the beginning of a fire” was underway. “Fire broke out at the tip of the spire, which isn’t made of wood, but rather metal,” local authorities told Agence France-Press news agency.
City officials later said in a statement: “The cause of the fire is currently unknown. At 2pm, the fire was brought under control by 63 firefighters.”
“The interior was saved, above all the works of art [housed at the cathedral],” said the French culture minister Rachida Dati in a press statement. The statement went on to highlight plans that were launched by the French government to protect cathedrals classed as “state property”, following the fire that ravaged Notre Dame in 2019.
The wooden spire initially erected on the cathedral was struck by lightning in 1822; it was rebuilt using cast iron, then steel, in the early 19th-century. The spire, known as the d’Alavoine arrow, has been undergoing renovation work since 2017.
Monet painted Rouen Cathedral from 1892 to 1893. “Moving from one canvas to another as each day progressed, he painted the facade with highly textured brushstrokes that convey the aspect of sculpted stone and make the atmosphere and light palpable,” says The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 1895, Monet showed 20 works from his Rouen series at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris.
