40 years ago: A tower of the cathedral is on fire
Editorial colleague Steve Remesch Stand on Good Friday in 1985 with his mother on the Knuedler when the tower of the cathedral collided and – almost like in slow motion – tilted into the courtyard of the National Library. « At the time, when I was seven, I simply couldn’t understand why the pouring rain could not extinguish fire that day, » he recalls. The morning after, he fell on the « Luxembourg word » to see the pictures.
But Steve and his mother weren’t the first to notice the fire. Because editorial colleague Simone Molitor Came with her grandma from the Lassner toy shop on the Knuedler: « Boma, de Kierchtuerm burns ». Today, 40 years later, she recalls: « I was probably the first to see it was just a flame. My grandmother looked at me at first, as if I was crazy, but then she also saw the first flames that spread quickly. I don’t know how long we were watching the spectacle with many other people, but it was a formative experience. tried to extinguish the fire on the other.
The background: what happened that day
40 years ago in Marienland Luxembourg there was great anticipation not only in church circles for an upcoming important visit. From May 15 to 16, 1985, Pope John Paul II was to officially travel a Pontifex Maximus for the first time. In all of Luxembourg, administrations, clubs and church institutions prepared for the upcoming major event. So it was not surprising that even smaller repair work was carried out on the cathedral.
But then something is happening that is unimaginable for many believers at this time: On Good Friday, April 5, 1985, workers on behalf of the city administration are employed with welding work on the 32.5 -meter -high tower of the cathedral, the Mariendom. At 1:45 p.m., according to later media reports, they return from their lunch break and notice that a fire broke out inside the tower.
Shortly after 2 p.m., the emergency call will be received by the then professional fire brigade of the city of Luxembourg. The roof of the tower collapses almost half an hour later. Witnesses report burning beams that plunge into the courtyard between the then National Library and the Cathedral. Cut through the roof of the nave and trigger other small fires, as the press reports at the time.
The fire brigade succeeds in preventing the fire from spreading. The fire is extinguished around 4.30 p.m.
No postponement of the Pope’s visit
The damage balance is mixed. On the one hand, the joy prevails that nobody was seriously injured or even killed. On the other hand, with the repair of the cathedral before visiting the Pope, this did not work so well. The cross with the weather vane is recovered from the park of the former Foreign Ministry after the fire. The roof of the nave is damaged in several places that completely destroyed the old tower, including the bell game. The bells themselves were badly damaged by the heat. When over a year later, on July 10, 1986, the new cathedral bells sounded again for the first time, onlookers line the surrounding streets to attend this event.
The day when Pope John Paul II exchanged his hat against a helmet
Despite the damage in 1985, neither Oktav nor the Pope’s visit had to be postponed. The tower itself had already been repaired in the summer. At the beginning of September, the wooden construction of the Turmspitze was completed and the tower cross was set up again on September 13, 1985. The weathercock followed a month later, as I said, the bells in July 1986.
As the author of these lines, the then nine -year -old must Luc Ewen confessed that on that Good Friday in the Alzettetal he was busy with « Klibberen » to represent the bells that were supposedly traveled to Rome. So it happened that he only later saw the pictures of the collapsing tower in newspaper and television. Unlike the children, who, for example, Klibberg in Cessingen on this day and saw the burning tower in the distance.
He still has a memory of the incident. Namely, when he later drove to the city with his mother with bus line 10 to hear the repaired carillon. During the trip, he once again had doubts about the adults’ stories in terms of faith and religion. « How can it be that the bells were damaged in the fire? Wouldn’t they have to be in Rome on Good Friday? »
