The spire of Rouen Cathedral, the one painted by Monet, is on fire

One of France’s most famous buildings of worship, Rouen Cathedral, famous for being painted by Claude Monet in one of his best-known series, is on fire: in fact, a fire broke out on the spire of the Cathedral at noon today. The spire has been under restoration since early 2024. “Principle of fire in progress on the spire of Rouen Cathedral,” the mayor of the Normandy city, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, wrote an hour ago on X. “All public resources are mobilized. Thank you to facilitate their intervention.”

At the moment the Cathedral has been evacuated, and vehicles have already arrived on the scene to deal with the emergency and make sure the fire does not spread. The area around the Cathedral has also been secured.

Rouen Cathedral is one of the most majestic and oldest in France, and the spire is the tallest in France, with a height of 96 meters, making the church the tallest building in the world between 1876 and 1880. The church has medieval origins and is now in the Gothic style of renovations carried out between the 12th and 13th centuries. This is not the first time the spire has caught fire: it had already caught fire in 1514, so much so that a makeover was necessary. Then again in 1822 it had collapsed from a culmination and had to be rebuilt, in neo-Gothic style, with work lasting from 1825 until 1834. Ironically, Rouen Cathedral is also dedicated to Our Lady. That is, in French, Notre Dame, like the Paris Cathedral that met a similar fate in 2019.

The spire of Rouen Cathedral, the one painted by Monet, is on fire

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