In the main Church of the French city of Nantes, the Gothic Cathedral of saints Peter and Paul yesterday morning a fire occurred. The building was saved, but the loss could not be avoided. Died on the seventeenth-century, stained-glass Windows of the XVI century and a painting of the XIX century work of Hippolytus Flandrena. While architects and restorers count the damage, investigators are trying to understand whether it was accidental fire or intentional. Says the correspondent of “Kommersant” in France Alexey Tarhanov.The fire in the Cathedral of saints Peter and Paul in Nantes was seen July 18 at 7:30 a.m. local time (6:30 GMT), 15 minutes firefighters arrived. The portal of the Cathedral opens onto a small semi-circular St. Peter’s square, surrounded by buildings of the XIX century. Before all France awake bakers, they raised the alarm. After a few minutes in the network appeared the first video of the flames escaped through a huge stained glass window on the facade. It seemed that the flame rises to the arch, still higher than Notre Dame, and the Cathedral, which was built from 1434 to 1891, is doomed.The first fire brigades, hacked the door and entered the temple, found however that the local center is located at the height of the second tier just in front of the stained glass. The fire was ordered by the General-inspector Roland Ferley. He has mobilized all of the city parts — 104 telescopic towers and ladders. Two hours later, it became clear that the fire will be extinguished, and the design is not affected, and the General hastened to reassure citizens, saying that “we are not facing a scenario of Notre Dame de Paris”. He recalled that in the twentieth century Nantes Cathedral got it twice — first in 1944 when he was hit by a bomb during an air RAID of the allies, and then in 1972, when the worker-roofer didn’t turn off the blowtorch and the whole top of the Cathedral burned to the ground, just as it happened a year ago with the Paris monument. It was built in 1620 organ master Jacques Girardet, and since then 34 of the organist has changed his remote. One of them Denis Joubert saved a tool from the revolutionaries, performing on it instead of sacred music “La Marseillaise”. The organ was totally destroyed on the floor of the Cathedral remained only the charred remains of the instrument, four centuries accompanied the worship.Killed and who was behind it the Gothic stained glass of the Central rose. XVI-century glass in lead casements could not stand the fire. To restore them fail. This is all the more disappointing that the Cathedral has long ago replaced most of the stained — glass Windows after the explosion, may 25, 1800, gunpowder warehouse in the nearby castle of the Dukes of Brittany, after the bombing, and finally, after the previous fire. Burned down one of the decorated Church paintings — work Flandrin Hippolyte (1809-1864) “St. Claire, the Bishop of Nantes, heals the blind.” A copy of the painting made by the brother of the artist Paul is in the Louvre, but the original, written in Rome in the 18th35-1836 years, especially for the Cathedral, now lost.”We will make every effort to determine the cause of the fire”— promised the mayor of Nantes Joanna Rolland. In Nantes on the same day, came Prime Minister Jean Castex, the Minister of internal Affairs Gerald Darmanin and culture Minister roselyn Bachelot. In the middle of the day, the Prosecutor of Nantes Pierre Sienna announced that initiated the investigation, which should identify the perpetrators. The leader of the party “Wake Up, France” Nicolas DuPont-Aignan has said live that it was time to end the “politics of the ostrich” and think, who benefits from the fire in Nantes. However, the same Prosecutor noted that the investigation found no signs of forced entry into the Church, all the doors of night were closed. You can see photos of the fire that appeared on the network, see the burnt down transformer box that stood under the picture Flandrena. It is possible that the sharp clap was heard in the morning people, it’s a transformer explosion and three fires, three seats short circuit. That, however, does not mean that in this case it is not necessary to apportion blame. Last night police arrested 39-year-old man, immigrants without documents, who, on a voluntary basis worked at the Church and had the keys to the front door. It was he who closed on the eve of the Cathedral. The city attorney stressed the BFM that “we are talking about testing and so far nothing suggests that he was involved in the fire.”
