On July 11, the Rouen Cathedral broke out in France – a fire engulfed its spire. The building has now been evacuated and a security perimeter has been set up around it.
This is written by BFM Normandie and the Prefecture of Normandy and Seine-Maritime on social networks X.
The cause of the fire has not yet been established.
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Fire in Rouen Cathedral
According to Le Monde, at noon a fire broke out on the spire of the Rouen Cathedral in the Seine-Maritime. The spire has been undergoing renovations since early 2024.
– A fire started on the spire of Rouen Cathedral. The cause is unknown at this stage. All public resources have been mobilized,” wrote the mayor of the city, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, on the social network X.
Fire department officials told Agence France-Presse that “33 engines and 63 firefighters were involved”.
What is known about Rouen Cathedral
The building is included in the French national heritage list and is the fourth tallest Gothic cathedral in the world. The spire, which was engulfed in flames, has been undergoing repairs since early 2024. It reaches 151 meters in height and is made of cast iron. As noted in the regional department of cultural affairs in the presentation of the project, the choice of cast iron as the only material for the structure turned out to be unsuitable in the long term: it is “fragile and not flexible enough to cope with the influence of bad weather”.
The construction is the final stage of a more comprehensive reconstruction of the cathedral, which has been taking place since 2015. The approximate cost of this latest project is estimated at 1.33 million euros.
The spire, one of the tallest in Europe, was inaugurated in 1876 to replace the previous one, which was destroyed by fire in 1822.
