Paradise and Inferno: Holy Places All Over the World That Were Tested by Fire

In this image made available on Tuesday April 16, 2019 flames and smoke rise from the blaze at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, Monday, April 15, 2019. An inferno that raged through Notre Dame Cathedral for more than 12 hours destroyed its spire and its roof but spared its twin medieval bell towers, and a frantic rescue effort saved the monument's "most precious treasures," including the Crown of Thorns purportedly worn by Jesus, officials said Tuesday.

Firefighters battle a three-alarm fire in the historic Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava,1 May 2016, in New York.

The Dormition Church of Kondopoga in Karelia, destroyed after a fire.

A handout picture released by the Longford Leader, taken on 30 September, 2012 shows the scaffolding and working materials inside St Mel’s Cathedral in the town of Longford in Ireland. The imposing 19th century edifice in the Irish midlands was completely gutted in a blaze that started just a few hours after the annual Midnight Mass in 2009, but was rebuilt just several years later.

Troitsky Monastery, shown on fire in St. Petersburg, Russia.

A statue guards the doorway to the heavily-damaged gift shop at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on 19 December 2001 in New York.

Notre-Dame de Reims on fire during World War I.

Chicago firefighters work in freezing temperatures on a multiple-alarm fire at the Holy Name Cathedral, the seat of Cardinal Francis George, in Chicago, Wednesday, 4 February 2009.

Fire breaks out at Novodevichy Convent in Moscow, Russia.