Heart of European Civ Destroyed! Russian Historian Laments Symbolic Death of France

60 Minutes: Hot on the Trail Live. Today we have our Moscow-Paris special. Olga Skabeyeva is in Paris next to Notre-Dame de Paris. Tonight, the French couldn't stop the fire and 800 years of history burned almost to the ground. The fire destroyed almost the entire interior of one of the most magnificent cathedrals, the symbol of France, one of the major monuments of the European Christian civilization, history, and architecture, Notre-Dame de Paris.

- 60 Minutes: Hot on the Trail Live. Today we have our Moscow-Paris special. Olga Skabeyeva is in Paris next to Notre-Dame de Paris. Tonight, the French couldn't stop the fire and 800 years of history burned almost to the ground. The fire destroyed almost the entire interior of one of the most magnificent cathedrals, the symbol of France, one of the major monuments of the European Christian civilization, history, and architecture, Notre-Dame de Paris. The Notre-Dame Cathedral, glorified in the works of Hugo, is now basically a skeleton. You can see the facade on the screen. It took about 1.5 hours for the roof and spire of the cathedral to burn through and collapse, even though the spire was rebuilt in the 19th century, which was one of the multiple renovations throughout history. It collapsed in front of many millions of witnesses of the catastrophe. Basically, the entire world was watching the death of Notre-Dame online. According to the most modest estimated, the restoration of the cathedral will cost billions of dollars and take decades.

But let's travel to Paris. What's the current situation, Olga?

 

- Greetings, Eugeny. Greetings, our esteemed guests. One needs to imagine what's happening here right now. We're on the island of Cite. Yesterday late at night, all residents were evacuated. Right now, people are being brought back. Hundreds of thousands of tourists come here with the residents of the island. The entire place is overcrowded. The traffic's basically been paralyzed. Firemen have encircled the Notre-Dame Cathedral which has become a mere stone carcass, if you look closely. There's footage from the inside that gives us the idea of how destructive the fire was. All wooden structures have been scorched. Firemen have been working for 15 hours trying to extinguish the flames. One must note (and there will be a special investigation) that they started extinguishing the fire only four hours after it broke out when the spire already collapsed when the famous clock crashed to the ground and when the entire roof burned down. The reason is that fire trucks couldn't access the area. There was a giant traffic jam here. After arriving at the scene, the firemen discovered that their ladders couldn't reach the top of the famous towers. Notre-Dame de Paris burned almost to the ground. The famous stained-glass artwork was destroyed. Gaping black holes are all that's left of them. A lot of tourists are taking photos of what's left of the Notre-Dame Cathedral.

We know (and caught it on camera) that Macron has visited the place twice. The second time, he even entered the cathedral that was still engulfed in flames to demonstrate his solidarity with the people of France. It's worth noting that here and now the people scattered around the island of Cite begin praying. They get to their knees, beg for help, and chant psalms. In this context, it's worth mentioning that 200 million euro have already been allocated for the restoration of the Notre-Dame de Paris, even 300 million euro, if we sum up all the money. But money's nothing. It's still unclear how long the restoration will take. Moreover, nobody dares to estimate the damages.

Naturally, all French papers are published under the headlines similar to "Our History Burns Down" and "Revolution Fire: Notre-Dame in Flames." Le Parisien and Liberation draw horrifying parallels. We'll also show you the notorious Charlie Hebdo, making fun of the catastrophe. Or perhaps they aren't making fun of it but grieving and crying instead. Everybody, the people of France and the French media claim that Notre-Dame de Paris became a sort of a sacred victim of Macron's reforms. Yesterday, he was forced to cancel his Address to the Nation regarding the Yellow Vests riots. People were wondering what would Macron be remembered for? He'll be remembered for this terrible conflagration. For fifteen hours, the flames were devouring the helpless cathedral.

Let's watch the footage.

"I keep asking God, "Why?"

Emmanuel Macron, President of France: "What happened today in Notre-Dame is a terrible drama. About 500 firemen were fighting the flames for several hours. I assure you. We'll rebuild the cathedral all together. Perhaps that's part of the French destiny".

- This footage makes us all feel sorry for the French. It's hard to watch. A piece of human heritage burned to the ground. Natalia, you know France better than we all do in this studio. You worked in Paris for many years, representing Russia in France. It was a catastrophe, right? An incredible building burned to the ground. That cathedral meant a lot for mankind. And yet, there's a lot of symbolism in this. Each headline draws a new parallel. "Europe Burns Down." "History Burns Down." "Start Reforms From Ashes", as Charlie Hebdo sees it. Where do they come from? Where do they get so many references to something... unnatural, I guess? Or rather supernatural.

Natalia Narochnitskaya, President of Historic Perspective Fund: You know, Eugeny when at 1 AM I was invited to fly here, the city where I'd worked for so long, I did that without a moment's hesitation despite my age. I packed my bags within two hours and we took off. The scene was distressing and terrifying. You're right, this catastrophe is indeed symbolic. First, it's the Holy Week before the Catholic Easter. A Christian sanctuary burns down. Let's not forget that first and foremost it's not a monument of architecture but a monument and symbol of the Christian Europe, the Christian France. The country whose citizens sacrificed their lives on the scaffold for faith, their homeland, honor, duty, and love. All French kings after Reims used to be crowned here used to marry here. Great state and ecclesial acts used to take place here. That's why this catastrophe is a menacing omen for all of us, not just the Latin Catholic Europe that has strayed from its Christian values, as we often say. It's just…

- Keep talking. A lot of firemen and police officers still remain at the scene so the sirens will accompany our live broadcast.

- Merkel called it the symbol of European values. Previously she used to say that various minority parades were the symbols of the European values, along with human rights exclusively in their modern interpretation. No, in fact, that's the way it is because Notre-Dame de Paris is a sanctuary. It's a symbol of the European civilization as a Christian civilization, first of all. The Christian values are the values of Europe: thou shalt not kill or steal. And when we talk about the Christian values this shows the unity of the Orthodox and the Latin Catholic worlds. We have different interpretations of God's commandment, the great historic mission our God tasked us with but still, thou shalt not kill or steal. It's not the American Constitution that draws us close but the fundamental rules of Christianity. Right now, we get a lot of jeering, if not gloating, comments saying that Europe was punished.

You know, I don't want to talk about that today. The thing I'd like to say is that it's a lesson to the entire Christian Europe, both Orthodox Christians and Catholics. I believe that's a terrible blow for the Catholics. Perhaps, they actually see it as God's punishment. It's an indication that sin and perversion victoriously march along the streets. Those who appeal to the great Christian values get their mouth shut because it's not politically correct. And suddenly, this happens. If we talk about the fire itself, it was astounding. Unfortunately, we can only stand here where we can see the facade that doesn't display the destruction that explicitly, especially on camera. The other side looks like a charred corpse with its roof caved in and its walls covered in soot. They say the interior's burned to the ground. There were a lot of painted wooden structures there. Catholic churches have wooden sculptures. So many people used to pray on their knees and leave small notes at their feet. God, I once took part in a prayer service that Patriarch Alexey performed here in 2007 after the Catholic service. It wasn't a joint service, the two went one after the other. And we saw the Crown of Thorns.

- They saved it.

- We bowed to it together.

- We have confirmed information that the Crown's been saved.