Notre-Dame Isn’t Lost
The history of sacred structures is defined by ruin and repair.
In 1665, Christopher Wren visited Paris, studying its architecture and taking notes for his restoration of the majestic, crumbling St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The fourth church built on that site, Old St. Paul’s had taken roughly 200 years to construct, having finally been consecrated in 1240. Its windows are referenced in . Catherine of Aragon was married in the cathedral to Henry VIII’s brother. The poet John Donne was buried there. And in 1666, the year after Wren returned from Paris, St. Paul’s was destroyed by fire, along with much of the rest of London. “I was infinitely concern’d to find that goodly Church St. Paules now
