Stern

Yesterday, the master mason Joe Alonso took me up to see the severely-damaged south portal pinnacle, up-close on the scaffolding. Some 20 tons of
carved limestone sit above the "break line" (where the entire structure rotated and cracked); all of the stonework above the break line is fine, but must
be fully dismantled, stone by stone, to access the zone of damage. Adjacent to that break line is a series of large carved, human heads. The 8 heads
are completely different from each other, and each of them is very expressive. This one was the most dramatic, perhaps. Just below his beard,
you can see the original mortar layer, now revealed when the stones shifted, which his "column" of stone was once attached to.

© Chris Budny

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