Hacker News Reader

Comment by isostatic | Hacker News Reader

Many of these wooden structures are nearly 1,000 years old. The spire itself only dates from the 19th century.

Does wood really last that long? I know ancient Japanese wooden temples are basically rebuilt every 30 years or so, a constant renewal akin to the Ship of Theseus. Are European wooden structures similarly renewed?

Here's a 1200-yr old wooden church: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensted_Church

Protected from fungus (rot) and insects, wood can last indefinitely. How to achieve that, of course, varies widely.

Wood, if properly taken care of and kept dry, will last basically forever. I’d imagine they do that in Japan because of humidity or so.

They do it in Japan because they choose to. Rebuilding it every generation is a religious ritual tied closely to Shintoism. The buildings certainly aren't rotting out completely over that short timeframe!

Many Americans live in wooden houses that are much older than that. The biggest problem tends to be termites.

There are still some 12th century wooden churches in Norway that still have most of the original wood: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stave_church#Old_stave_churche...

Only one temple in Japan is continuously rebuilt. Many others are several centuries old.

is that accurate? https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-47942176 suggests the spire dates back to 12th century whereas Wikipedia suggests, to your point, that it was recreated in the 19th century: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris#Towers_and...

The old spire was taken down after the Revolution because it was in bad state and in danger of falling over the structure. A new one was built in the big mid-19th restoration of Viollet-le-Duc. Source, the chief architect of the current restoration works in this very interesting video tour (in French): https://www.facebook.com/lemonde.fr/videos/10155299594692590...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com