![]() ![]() ![]() His gargoyles were not very medieval, they complained, and the chimeras-monstrous animals-that he created to decorate the roof were not like anything else in the church. ![]() His aim was to restore the church to its original look, but he was not sufficiently meticulous to satisfy the most conservative critics. Viollet‑le‑Duc put together a team of skilled masons, carpenters, sculptors, and glaziers to repair or reproduce the impaired stonework. Later reports said those flames had been extinguished just in time by firefighters who had bravely ascended the tower at the risk of their lives. (The great Emmanuel had somehow survived.) In the north tower he put a new, stronger timber support structure and as I watched with horrified eyes on April 15th, I thought I saw fire inside that tower. Viollet‑le‑Duc replaced those of the bells that had been melted down for cannons in the revolution. He drew Gothic windows to replace the medieval stained glass broken in the revolution. Where there was nothing left but an empty space he used drawings and photographs from other medieval cathedrals to design substitutes. He also exploited the new technology of photography to make daguerreotypes. ![]()
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