Gargoyles II

Here are the promised gargoyles I found at Notre Dame de Paris.

There are certainly much more and even quite different ones on top of the cathedral. Unfortunately I wasn’t on top of the cathedral, but I definitely want to go to when in Paris for the next time.

Over the time the gargoyles were attacked by the rain water and so some of the decorations got victims of erosion ( I mentioned in my previos post, that they were attached to prevent the stone from being eroded by the rain water, as you can see easyly on the attached photos). But over the last 150 years, when industrialisation grew, more and more polution came into the air. Ashes and particulates from the industrieal needs, car engines and coal power stations brought i.e. sulfur oxid into the air. Sulfur oxid combined with (rain) water makes aicd rain, which atacks stone (and plants also) in a very agressive way, as you might already know.  The stone vanishes more quickly, than without the fallout and the necessary repair work for the cathedral work increases rapidly.

Several new laws and technical develops over the last 20 – 30 years were able to reduce the amount of the newly emitted pullution in the air, but especially in the cities it is still an important determining factor.

This is not only true for Notre Dame de Paris or Paris or France, not it’s the same all over Europe andthe rest of the world, too.  We have to take care for your wonderful planet, for the nature and also for the heritage of our ancestors.

While waiting for the next posts, you’re welcome to have a look on my previous posts and / or drop me a note.

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