STRASBOURG, France — The stained glass at a
cathedral in eastern
France will no longer produce a distinctive green ray seen
just twice a year, on the spring and autumn equinoxes, after the precise pane
was replaced during a recent renovation.
اضافة اعلان
Admirers learned of its loss when they hoped to see
the phenomenon at exactly 4:33pm on Sunday, when the Earth’s axis was directly
perpendicular to the sun — marking the first day of spring.
But the website
of
Strasbourg’s gothic cathedral warned visitors that, as of March 16, the
pane’s replacement meant there would no longer be any “green ray” illuminating
a stone carving of a crucified Christ.
The light had fuelled speculation of a divine
blessing on the cathedral completed in 1439, with hundreds of people coming to
witness the twice-yearly event, though church officials insisted it was a pure
coincidence of celestial geometry.
The stained-glass window in question was installed
in 1876, and the sun would pass through the left foot of Judah, a son of Jacob,
to produce the famous ray.
But according to the cathedral’s internet site, the phenomenon
probably began after a previous renovation in 1972, when the pane showing
Judah’s foot was replaced with a more transparent glass.
That year it was first observed by Maurice Rosart,
an engineer and surveyor, who denounced its demise as a “scandal.”
“This is a hard blow for the people of Strasbourg, for
culture, for secularism and the Enlightenment,” he said in a statement to AFP.
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