New Photos Show Inside Burned Out Nantes Cathedral

Story By: Joseph GolderSub-EditorJoseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

These shocking new images released by the local diocese show how badly Nantes cathedral which took almost 500 years to build has been damaged in the fire on Saturday morning in France.

A volunteer who had been detained for questioning has also now been released without charge. The man is a 39-year-old Rwandan refugee who has not been named. (https://bit.ly/3jeRScK)

He had been in charge of locking up the cathedral on Friday evening and was released yesterday evening (Sunday 19th July) “without any charges”, according to the state prosecutor, named as Pierre Sennes.

Diocese de Nantes/CEN

The Diocese of Nantes, which is a city on the Loire River in the Upper Brittany region of western France, has shared these images on Facebook, showing the devastation inside the Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul cathedral. (https://bit.ly/3hgRwjZ)

The diocese captioned the post: “The fire caused a lot of damage inside the cathedral. In particular, the disappearance of the pipe organ, the stalls and the console of the choir organ, all destroyed.”

Police are investigating the cause of the fire and reportedly suspect that it was arson. The organ that was destroyed was built in the 17th Century.

Diocese de Nantes/CEN

According to reports, 104 firefighters and 45 fire engines took part in putting the blaze out on Saturday and Prime Minister Jean Castex praised them for their “professionalism, their courage and their self-control.”

Investigators have since identified three separate points of origin of the fire.

According to the French Ministry of Culture, construction originally began on the cathedral in 1434 and took 457 years to complete.

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