I was thrilled to find a postcard seller in France who had this card with a vintage shot of the National Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, and it joined my collection the same week that I read about the couple who were married in front of the cathedral ruins.
Wedding takes place in front of destroyed National Cathedral in Haiti
(and full text of story)
(NECN/APTV) - A couple who had planned to wed before a devastating earthquake destroyed their home and the church they would have married in, exchanged vows on Sunday {Feb. 28, 2010} in a yard in front of a crumbled cathedral in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. It was a simple ceremony, there was no laughs, and there was no celebration after. This was not, after all, how it was supposed to have happened.
Taxi driver Emmanuel Beaugele, 33, and his fiancee Marie Neslene, 30, were due to marry on January 16, 2010. But four days earlier, on January 12, a powerful earthquake shook Haiti, killing an estimated 230-thousand people and leaving more than a million (m) homeless.
Emmanuel and Marie, who had been together for six years, lost their home and their jobs. The Roman Catholic cathedral that would have held their wedding ceremony crumbled under the force of the tremor. . .On Sunday, one month and a half after their originally planned wedding date, the couple finally got married in a less than lavish affair in front of the ruins of the collapsed cathedral.
A man cleans the shoes of a girl before attending a wedding in front of the destroyed national cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010. Photo: Esteban Felix / AP2010
There is a marvelous post, titled The Inspirational Power of Hope at Robert Edsell's blog at The Monuments Men website, in which he writes:
Haiti’s great church, the National Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, was severely damaged by the earthquake. Built between 1884 and 1914, the Cathédrale de Port-au-Prince is a Roman Catholic Church of hugely symbolic importance to Haitians, more than 90% of whom are Catholic. It is, along with the presidential palace, the most identifiable structure in the nation. (To put this into perspective, imagine the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. being destroyed, or St. Patrick’s in New York City.)
While the roof collapsed, much of the structure’s walls remain standing, in fact eerily similar to the scenes of destruction to the Rouen and Berlin churches. Those churches were rebuilt: the National Cathedral in Port-au-Prince should be also.
The Monuments Men website is a fascinating find for me and I will return to read more. Who were they?
The “Monuments Men” were a group of 345 or so men and women from thirteen nations who comprised the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section during World War II. Many were museum directors, curators, art historians, and educators. Together they worked to protect monuments and other cultural treasures from the destruction of World War II. In the last year of the war they tracked, located, and ultimately returned more than 5 million artistic and cultural items stolen by Hitler and the Nazis. Their role in preserving cultural treasures was without precedent. . .
The mission of the The Monuments Men Foundation:
To preserve the legacy of the unprecedented and heroic work of the men and women who served in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (“MFAA”) section, known as “Monuments Men,” during World War II, by raising public awareness of the importance of protecting and safeguarding civilization’s most important artistic and cultural treasures from armed conflict, while incorporating these expressions of man's greatest creative achievements into our daily lives.
Isn't it remarkable that the expertise and passion of this group might be of help to both Haiti and Chile as those countries move to preserve what remains and to rebuild with a commitment to not only safety but also with cultural preservation as an important consideration for the future?
Ultimately, however, the truth remains......
Buildings, too, are children of Earth and Sun.
~ Frank Lloyd Wright
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