Juniors Olivia Suddath, Mary Katherine Childers and Jordan Hornsby stand in front of the Louvre Museum April 29, 2019, in Paris. The group visited Paris shortly after the Notre Damefire. I photo courtesy of Olivia Suddath • witnessing hist The Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire while students attended Harding University in Florence in spring 2019. Many were devastated when the Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire April 15, 2019. Over the years, many Harding students saw the cathedral through the Europe-based study abroad programs. Junior William Philbrick, who was studying abroad with the spring 2019 Harding University in Florence (HUF) program, was in Paris three days before the fire, allowing him to see the cathedral in its original form. "I had been out all day, and my friend Chris and I had just gotten back from Paris, so we just spent the day in Florence without Wi-Fi or anything, so we didn't get any texts," Philbrick said. "When we got back, I was getting all these texts from my friends and family back home telling me that the Notre Dame was on fire. I thought it was a · joke because we were just there. It didn't feel real." Two weeks later, Philbrick returned to the cathedral to see what remained. "It was blocked off, and there were people standing as close as they could get taking pictures of it," Philbrick said. "It was very odd to see that many people in Paris gather and stop in one place because they're usually very busy and moving around a lot, so for a lot of people to be congregated like that was really weird. It gave me a sense of how much that meant to them and how important it was for them." HUF director Robbie Shackelford was saddened by the tragic event and had not returned to see the cathedral. "I am constantly surrounded by art and architecture that I appreciate, and I have the pleasure of teaching others to appreciate," Shackelford said. "I will say that my thoughts were directed to the fact that the original has been lost to us." Even those who never visited Notre Dame felt heartache after the fire. Senior visual art studio major Anna Milliron related the damaged cathedral to her major courses. "As an art student, we've all heard of it, and even now I'm taking Italian Renaissance Art History, and [Notre Dame] was one of the first things we talked about, so it's really heartbreaking that I'm not going to get to see that ever in its original form," Milliron said. Milliron discussed how the Notre Dame fire revealed a connection between art and culture. "I think it puts into perspective just how important those buildings are, and preserving them is important," Milliron said. "It's more than art; it's a part of culture." story by Grace Baker international 41
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