page_title: Nantes Cathedral
section_title: 2020 fire
hierarchical_section_title: Nantes Cathedral / History / 2020 fire
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Les Grandes-Orgues de la cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Nantes (44) drapées de noir après le décès de Félix Moreau, organiste titulaire honoraire.
context_page_description: Nantes Cathedral, or the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul of Nantes, is a Roman Catholic Gothic cathedral located in Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France. Construction began in 1434, on the site of a Romanesque cathedral, and took 457 years to finish in 1891. It has been listed since 1862 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.
context_section_description: In the early hours of 18 July 2020, a fire broke out in three parts of the cathedral, one concentrated on the main organ (grand orgue) at the west end, originally built by Jacques Girardet in 1621, which was destroyed, a second near a smaller organ to the left of the altar and the third to the right of the altar. Around 100 firefighters tackled the blaze. Police investigated the incident as a possible act of arson. Fire Chief Laurent Ferlay reported that the cathedral sustained less damage than Notre-Dame de Paris did in its 2019 fire.
  After the fire, a 39-year-old church volunteer, a Rwandan refugee who had lived in France since 2012, was detained for questioning but released without charge. However, the man was later re-arrested and confessed to setting the fire; he was charged with arson. His lawyer told a newspaper that the man "bitterly regrets" his actions.
caption: The main cathedral organ and stained glass, both destroyed by the 2020 fire
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