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American Red Cross Captures the War's Devastation
During French Commander-in-Chief Robert Nivelle's attempt to push back the German line in April 1917, the Napoleonic-era edifice of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Vaast d'Arras was destroyed. This photo -- part of American Red Cross documentation of the war's aftermath -- captures the extent of the damage caused when the roof collapsed, destroying most of the nave and transept. Not everyone decried it as an architectural loss. Arthur Stanley Riggs wrote, "As we stood looking at the cathedral one brilliant morning, and marveling at the unique change shell-fire had made -- in this case transforming one of the ugliest Renaissance churches in France into a sublime and inspiring ecclesiastical ruin. . . ." |