France no longer has trees tall enough to rebuild Notre-Dame's roof as it was
- Bertrand de Feydeau, vice president of the preservation group Foundation du Patrimoine, said France no longer has trees tall enough to rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral's frame as it once was.
- The cathedral could be rebuilt with smaller beams, or with a metal frame, two options that would be "unpopular with purists," the Washington Post reported.
- A fire broke out in the cathedral's attic on Monday, causing most of the roof to collapse.
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When Notre-Dame Cathedral is rebuilt, it likely won't look quite the same.
That's because France no longer has trees tall enough to make its roof as soaring, Bertrand de Feydeau, vice president of the preservation group Foundation du Patrimoine, told France Info on Tuesday.
"We will have to implement new technologies that will leave the appearance of the cathedral as we love it," he said.
The cathedral spans 427 by 157 feet,with a soaring roof 115-feet high. While the facade that visitors could see from the nave (the central part of the church) was stone, the frame roof above it was wood.
According to Notre-Dame's website, 1,300 trees were felled for its roof between 1160 and 1170, many of which could have been 300-400 years old when they were cut down.
De Feydeau told CNN that he isn't sure if there are enough trees in Europe that fit that description, in those numbers.
Foundation Fransylva, a federation representing private timber growers in France, has already asked all its members to offer up oaks tree for Notre-Dame.
"Loggers want Notre-Dame's 'forêt-charpente' re-constructed with French oak trees, in keeping with the same traditions and good quality of the first builders," Fransylva's press release reads, referring to the frame that's called "the forest" because the wood came from so many oak trees.
Groupama insurance company is also offering to pay for 1,300 trees to re-build the church frame, which the company says would be 100-year-old oaks from the forests of Normandy, in keeping with the original construction.
Mechtild Rössler, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, told Business Insider's Hilary Brueck on Tuesday that the cathedral should be rebuilt as it was originally.
"We'll use modern methods, but it should be done by the books," Rössler said. "Which includes a lot of craftsmanship."
Other experts said wood wasn't a good idea to begin with, based on Monday's fire.
"I doubt they'll use wood," Carolyn Malone, a professor of art history and gothic architecture at the University of Southern California, told Business Insider in an email.
Other alternatives include a structure made with smaller beams, or even a metal frame, but the Washington Post said both ideas could be "unpopular with purists."
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- This graphic shows all that was destroyed — and what's still standing — following the Notre-Dame Cathedral fire