News of the Notre Dame fire reverberated around the world. For many, the Paris landmark is more than a religious symbol. Notre Dame Cathedral is a UNESCO world heritage site, and its damage is a loss to the world, and our hearts ache. The damage is a serious blow to the historical cultural legacy of all of humanity and to our people as members of humankind. Notre Dame is a global icon.

In the response to Macron’s appeal, pledges from donors to help rebuild the Cathedral have reached close to 800 million dollars just a day after the fire destroyed the old oak structure and topple the spire. We will rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral to be even more beautiful, and I want this to be achieved in five years. We can do it. But experts on historic restoration say it will take decades to complete the project. Eric Fisher is the head of the foundation in charge of maintaining the medieval Cathedral Strasbourg. Personally, I would count on decades rather than a few years in terms of work. Initial diagnosis will be extremely important determining what has been destroyed, what can be preserved. The next step will be making restoration choices before even starting the reconstruction work.

Finding available masons, stained glass artists and carpenters skilled in historic restoration will be another challenge, says Francis Maude, an architect who worked on the restoration of Winsor Castle after it caught fire in 1992. The supply of craftsmen with the skill to work, so much stone, so much timber, so much led, so much glass for the windows is something which the industry in the whole of Europe may well be challenged to meet at the present moment, particularly when we know there are the very large projects which are facing the same limitations. Some people will insist that the Cathedral should be rebuilt with exactly the same material and in the same way as it was before the fire.

But that may not be wise, says Maude. Applying some contemporary skills and materials could make the cathedral better equipped to survive another 800 years. The British architect points out that grand historic buildings took decades even centuries to build, and the construction materials and styles changed with time.

Zlatica Hoke, VOA News, Washington.