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- 1. Amiens Cathedral, seen from the apse
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
The Ministry of Culture organised today a trip by Rima Abdul Malak to Amiens and the nearby village of Conty to talk about heritage. The aim was to present the actions carried out on cathedrals since the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris almost four years ago, and to visit the restoration site of the church in Conty. It is always a good thing when a Minister of Culture travels to show her interest in heritage, and when this happens we can only underline it.
We will discuss the "cathedral security action plan" in other articles and we will also come back to it in a future book. We will only focus here on this trip, which we were able to attend, and will first talk about Amiens cathedral (ill. 1). The church at Conty will be the subject of another article.
Until this morning we were sceptical about the effectiveness of this plan, being too used to announcements that are not followed by action. For Amiens Cathedral, we must undoubtedly acknowledge the very important and hopefully very effective efforts to provide this building with optimum protection against fire. This involves several measures that we will try to summarise, certainly without being exhaustive, by recalling what went wrong at Notre-Dame de Paris.
– absence of electricity in the structure
This point is essential. It is very possible that the Notre-Dame fire was caused by a faulty electrical installation, although this may have been combined with other factors, perhaps related to the building site.
– fire alarm
It is essential to detect the start of a fire quickly in order to intervene as soon as possible. We do not know the system in place in Amiens (this point was not discussed). However, it should be noted that the Minister has declared (in La Croix) that she is committed to installing thermal cameras in all cathedrals by the end of the five-year period.
– surveillance of the monument
One may wonder about the Minister’s statement to the newspaper La Croix which indicated: "A 24-hour surveillance existed at Notre-Dame before the fire and will be put in place again. Unfortunately, this did not prevent the tragedy [...]" If this did not prevent the tragedy, it is because this system in reality no longer existed: only one person was there when there should have been two, she was new to this position and was not trained and did not know how to detect the place where the fire was, not to mention the fact that she was starting a second day’s work due to a lack of replacement!
We questioned the firemen who were on site at the time of the visit, and they told us that in the case of Amiens, the alarm would ring directly at the fire station, that there was no need to raise any doubt and that they intervened systematically. It seems to us that this system is the right one, because there is no question among the cathedral staff as to whether or not to call the fire brigade. If the fire brigade arrives quickly, it is better to have a false alarm than a misdiagnosis.
– presence of lifting arms of sufficient height
We remember that in Paris there were no lifting arms high enough to reach the roof; they had to be brought from Versailles, which caused delays with tragic consequences. A 42-metre lift has been ordered from Amiens, but it will not arrive until the end of the year. Let’s hope we don’t need it before then. The purchase of lifts is necessary in all cities where there are high-rise historical monuments.
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- 2. Standpipe on the north tower
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
– presence of functional standpipes.
Standpipes are like gutters, but inverted (ill. 2): fire hoses are connected to the end at the bottom, and this goes directly to the top, where all that is left to do is to connect the hoses. In Amiens, there are now four new standpipes that can supply water to both sides of the transept and the two towers on the façade side [1] . Creeping columns (i.e. horizontal - ill. 3), which start from these standpipes, cover the whole cathedral. One remark, however: these standpipes, which seem to be made of aluminium, should if possible be painted, in a discreet colour to blend in more with the stone, as they are a little too visible.
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- 3. Creeping columns
Photo : Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
A demonstration of the effectiveness of these standpipes has been made (ill. 4). Note that here again those of Notre-Dame were defective, too narrow and, if we are to believe Jean-Jacques Annaud’s film (particularly well informed - see article), full of holes, in any case defective and impossible to use.
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- 4. Fire drill using the standpipe in the north tower
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
– partitioning of the framework (ill. 5)
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- 5. Frame of the nave of Amiens cathedral dating from the end of the 13th century
(only half is actually visible,
with the partitioning in the background)
Photo : Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
While this measure is certainly indispensable because the rapid spread of the fire at Notre-Dame was largely due to the immensity of the space of the roof frame, it is unfortunately damaging to the monument: indeed, it partly ruins the perspective of the attic [2]. Even if the whole thing is made to be dismantled and can be removed if necessary, it is unlikely that it will ever be. Note that the same thing has been in place for several years in the framework of the Château de Versailles. In Amiens, the framework above the nave was cut in two (ill. 6), and a partition was also built to protect the western part of the building on the façade side (ill. 7) to prevent the towers from being affected by a possible fire in the nave’s attic (we remember that at Notre-Dame, the towers were threatened for a long time and could have dragged the whole building down).
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- 6. Partitioning of the nave’s framework
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
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- 7. Partitioning between the nave’s framework and the western massif
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
– development of a rescue plan for cultural assets
Churches, and particularly Amiens Cathedral, often contain a large number of works of art. It is essential that a document be drawn up to enable the fire brigade to know which works need to be protected and if possible evacuated as a priority. This type of document is still lacking in many historical monuments and museums.
Undoubtedly, the sum of these measures makes a tragedy comparable to that of Notre-Dame de Paris less likely. It is to be hoped that work like this can be carried out on all cathedrals. According to the minister, only three of them are still insufficiently protected today but will be by the end of the year (Rennes, Bayonne and Aire-sur-l’Adour).
It should nevertheless be remembered that although cathedrals are under the control of the State, a very large number of religious buildings, whether they are former cathedrals, basilicas, collegiate churches or simply parish churches, are comparable in size to, or even larger than, some of these cathedrals, and are no less valuable. Let us mention - in a non-exhaustive way - the basilica of Saint-Michel in Bordeaux, the collegiate church of Mantes, the ancient cathedral of Auxerre, the basilica of Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, the abbey church of Saint-Ouen in Rouen, the churches of Saint-Eustache or Saint-Sulpice in Paris or the church of Notre-Dame in Dijon.
As for smaller churches, they too must be protected from fire, at least by installing detectors, which are compulsory in every flat but not in historic monuments. This question of regulation (including on restoration sites - see in particular this article) will have to evolve one day.