On Monday night, massive blaze devastated large part and threatened to completely destroy 850-year old Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris. Folks around the world, particularly the Catholic community watched in horror the video of the iconic spire at the top of the historic cathedral collapses.
Although firefighters were able to stop the fire, the cathedral's landmark still suffered a colossal damage. Amazingly, there were no deaths or injuries confirmed. And the authorities have ruled out arson and possible terror related motives. They are treating the blaze as an accident.
France president Emmanuel Macron lamented the loss via a tweet when he wrote.....“Notre Dame of Paris in flames. Emotion for a whole nation. Thoughts for all Catholics and for all French. Like all our countrymen, I’m sad tonight to see this part of us burn.”
Notre-Dame de Paris en proie aux flammes. Émotion de toute une nation. Pensée pour tous les catholiques et pour tous les Français. Comme tous nos compatriotes, je suis triste ce soir de voir brûler cette part de nous.
See more after the jump!!!
As President Macro vows to rebuild the iconic landmark, hefty donation are already pouring in, with French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault pledging a €100m (£86.3m, $113m). Pianault is one of the richest people in the Europe, thanks to his family's fashion empire. He is the CEO of the international luxury group Kering (KER PA) which owns the Gucci brand. He is also president of the French holding company Groupe Artemis,which owns the fine art auctions Christie's. Combined with his wife, Hollywood actress, Salma Hayek's wealth, they are worth £5.126bn ($6.71bn) and that is according to The Sunday Times rich List.
Bernard Annault on the other hand is worth $91.7bn. According to Forbes. .....Phewwwww! Talk about being stupendously wealthy(Oluwa kami mo won).....Yoruba for "count me among these group oh God"
According to Blomberg, Total (EP PA), a major French oil and gas company , on Tuesday further pledged €100m ($113m) for Notre dame reconstruction, while tech and consulting firm Capgemini also pledged €1m ($1.1m). Kudos to them all.
The Notre Dame cathedral is one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. The magnificent building is over 800-years old. The construction began in 1163 and was completed 1345. The cathedral was a UNESCO World heritage Site, a world-wide Parisian icon and the location of some of the most important moments in the history of France.
The cathedral receives nearly 13-million visitors a year and it's home to exquisite religious artifacts, paintings and sculptures and other priceless work of arts. It had been undergoing renovations before this happened Monday night. Companies like L'oreal,, Apples, The University of Notre Dame in Indiana and many more has also made pledges towards reconstruction.
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