Word: rouen
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After the war, Chauvel got money from the French government, set about reconstructing the cathedral in earnest. By last week, after six years of patient reconstruction work, citizens of Rouen could proudly announce that their cathedral was out of danger...
Ever since the 13th Century, when they started to build it, the people of the French city of Rouen have taken a mighty pride in their gothic cathedral. Architecturally, it is too much of a hodgepodge to rank with the cathedrals of Chartres, Amiens or Reims. But Rouen's delicately detailed Butter Tower,* fine sculptures and stained glass are among the prides of France. The largest of its great bells was named for Joan of Arc, who was brought to Rouen for imprisonment and trial, was burned in 1431 near the cathedral in Rouen's market place...
...whole southern side of the nave. Incendiaries set the tower afire and sent the bells crashing 253 feet to the floor. One huge stone column known as Pillar 58, which supports 2,000 tons of walls and roof, was blasted and bent. When the bombers were through with Rouen, the cathedral was a hollow, burnt-out shell in danger of collapsing completely...
With his newly acquired knowledge Chauvel set up school in Rouen, taught his workmen to use old-style hand tools instead of mechanical saws in stonecutting. Thus, the new stone has the finely granulated look of the original. "This kind of surface softly reflects the light," said a Rouen expert, "whereas, with modern saws, we would have got a flat, shiny, modern surface." In similar spirit, the new timbers have been shaped with small axes, to give a delicately chiseled surface...
...European Recovery Program --ERP-- has reconstructed Rouen and France and a large part of Western Europe. It has helped jump European industrial output 15 percent over pre-war levels; hiked farm production nearly as much. ERP officials say their aid has been our chief weapon against communism. Congress now has a bill extending the program for another year. It should be passed...