With reference to the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris last week, here is a list of famous buildings of cultural and artistic significance which have been damaged or destroyed by fire over the centuries. Some have burned down and been rebuilt (in some case on more than one occasion) while others have disappeared forever. All you have to do is clear the smoke, decipher the clues and reconstruct the buildings in question.

1.

James Madison took occupancy of the White House, Washington in 1809 as 4th president of the United States. Five years later he and his administration would be forced to evacuate the capital city during the War of 1812 when British troops under General Robert Ross burned much of the city including the White House on 24 August 1814.


2

The army of Xerxes I, Persian king of kings sacked Athens in 480 BC. This included setting fire to the Acropolis.


3.

The gorgeous library designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1899 for the Glasgow School of Art was badly damaged in a fire in May 2014. Heartbreakingly (and not to mention bewilderingly) a second fire on 15 June 2018 then gutted the Mackintosh building entirely.


4.

The tulip mania of the 1630s was already a memory when Amsterdam's old mediaeval town hall burned down on 7 July 1652. There is a theory that the fire was started deliberately as some kind of expedient because plans were already underway for the building to be replaced. The new town hall (now the Royal Palace of Amsterdam) was completed in 1665.  


5.

As a theatrical company La Fenice in Venice dates back to the 1750s but didn't adopt the name until the 1780s as a symbol of resilience having lost tenancy on a former theatre house. Little did they know how prophetic the name would become. Since settling on its present site in 1792 the company's theatre has burned down and been rebuilt on no fewer than 3 occasions. The most recent fire was on 29 January 1996.


6.

The Globe Theatre, Maiden Lane, Southwark, England burned down on 29 June 1613. It was rebuilt as 'Shakespeare's Globe' in 1997.


7.

Sailors of Julius Caesar's navy, while assaulting the port of Alexandria in Egypt, burned down the Great Library there in 48 BC. A new Bibliotheca Alexandrina was opened in 2002.  


8.

It was when married to Mary I of England, and following the Anglo-Spanish victory over the French at the Battle of St Quentin in 1557, that Philip II of Spain decided to found a joint royal palace and monastery to commemorate the triumph. El Escorial outside Madrid soon grew into a formidable symbol of the close bond between church and state in his realms. The building included no fewer than 3 great libraries, the royal library, the monastic library and the choral library. On 7 June 1671 fire ravaged the royal library and much of the rest of the complex. Many works were lost including important natural history references on the Americas as well as original Arabic and Hebrew texts.          


9.

The fire which broke out at Windsor Castle on 20 November 1992 caused major damage to parts of the Upper Ward including the Queen's Private Chapel and St George's Hall. The decorative false ceiling in the Hall which had been installed in the 1820s facilitated the spread of the fire. A new ceiling was subsequently commissioned in a hammer-beam style which is arguably more ornate than that which preceded it. The public debate which accompanied the restoration work and the proposed costs resulted in the Queen becoming the first British monarch to start paying income tax.      


10.

Paul von Hindenburg, President of Germany had appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor barely a month before the Reichstag Building in Berlin caught fire on 27 February 1933. It re-opened for purpose in 1992.
 

11.

Brussels' Coudenberg Palace was for centuries one of the most famous and desirable residences in Europe. The preferred home of the Dukes of Brabant and Burgundy it was also the scene of the beginning and the end of the career of the Habsburg emperor Charles V. When the palace burned to the ground on 3 February 1731 the kitchen servants got the blame although it's widely believed that the vice-regent of the then Austrian Netherlands, Marie-Elizabeth of Habsburg and her immediate entourage themselves forgot to blow out the candles before going to bed.      


12.

The Queen's Chapel was formerly an integral part of London's St James's Palace when a fire on 17 January 1809 destroyed part of the building. The decision was made not to rebuild the lost apartments but instead build a road connecting the Mall with Pall Mall in that location. The Queen's Chapel now stands alone across the new Marlborough Road from the rest of the palace.  


13.

Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem is sometimes bracketed with nursery rhymes and fairy tales due to the lack of archaeological evidence. The Biblical record, however, suggests that it was burned down by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II in 587 BC. At the end of the 6th century BC a Second Temple began to take its place which too was destroyed by fire when Roman soldiers under Titus Vespasianus sacked the city in AD 70.


14.

William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne was British Prime Minister when the Old Palace of Westminster burned down on 16 October 1834. A conservative aristocrat he was an unlikely leader of the reforming Whig party and an unwilling prime minister. Whig measures such as Poor Law amendment, the 1832 Parliamentary Reform Act and the Abolition of Slavery had been highly controversial and the fire was seen by their opponents as being a providential bad omen for the Whigs. King William IV dismissed Melbourne within a month of the blaze and invited Sir Robert Peel to form a minority Tory government. Feeling that he had momentum, Peel called a snap election in January 1835 but despite making major gains the Tories were unable to overcome the Whig majority in the House of Commons. Melbourne was subsequently recalled to office.          


15.


The Winter Palace in St Petersburg has had many re-incarnations since it was founded by Peter the Great in 1711. One of those was during his own lifetime and a further 3 transformations would occur even before Catherine the Great expanded it yet again in the 1790s when the name 'The Hermitage' would become widely used to describe (somewhat confusingly) her new private wing but also her art collection but also again the entire palace complex. On 17 December 1837 a fire broke out which destroyed a large proportion of the palace although most of the removable artwork was saved. Consequently the Winter Palace would then see its sixth incarnation.
   

16.  

A public record office is probably not the best place to use as a munitions dump and yet this is precisely what happened during the Irish Civil War. On 30 June 1922 after a week of fierce fighting between pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty forces a huge explosion ripped through the Four Courts Building on Dublin's Inns Quay. Hundreds of years worth of scrolls, documents and certificates were lost in the blast and ensuing fire.  


17.

Quite dull-looking or even ugly to modern eyes, the Tuileries Palace is often said to have resembled a railway station. The reality is the other way around in that many railway stations actually resemble the Tuileries as it was its design which was influential on them. It had gone through several transformations since it was first built in the 1560s and having been largely neglected during the 18th century, found a new lease of life in the 19th century being the preferred residence of both Napoleon I and Napoleon III. During the dying days of the Paris Commune, the palace along with several other prominent buildings in the city was deliberately burnt down by Communard arsonists on 23 May 1871. It was never rebuilt.          


18.

The Banqueting House at Whitehall, London. The rest of the building burned down on 4 January 1698 ending its role as a royal palace and seat of government.


19.

The Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851. It was dismantled, rebuilt and reopened 3 years later on Sydenham Hill, Surrey where it remained for 82 years before burning down on 30 November 1936.  


20.

Tre Kronor, Stockholm. The Swedish royal castle was destroyed by fire 7 May 1697 taking much of the country's written archives with it.


21.

The Norwegian stave church in the village of Fortun near the head of Sognefjord was already over 700 years old when it was dismantled in the 1880s and transported 200 miles to be re-erected at Fantoft near Bergen. There it stood for another hundred years before being burned to the ground on 6 June 1992 in what is believed to have been an arson attack.    


22.

Three devastating fires damaged the Doge's Palace in Venice during the 15th and 16th centuries. The third fire which broke out on 20 December 1577 destroyed a large section of the building including the Senate Hall featuring works by artists such as Giovanni Bellini, Tiziano Vecelli (Titian) and Antonio di Puccio (Pisanello) among others.      


23.

Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid) statue in Copenhagen is sometimes described as one of the world's most unloved monuments having been vandalised on more than one occasion. It's been a similar story so it seems with Christiansborg Slot. A residence of Denmark's kings since 1745, the palace burned down in 1794 and again on 3 October 1884. During its second incarnation the royal family rarely even stayed there. Rebuilt in 1928, today it is the home of the Danish parliament.      


24.

The National Museum of Brazil relocated to the former Imperial Palace in Rio de Janeiro in 1892. Apart from the preserved state apartments of the palace itself, the museum included an enormous section on natural history, hundreds of unique indigenous artefacts from Brazil as well as other South American countries, one of the largest Egyptological collections in the Americas and a not insubstantial number of items from the ancient Mediterranean. More than 90% of its contents was lost in a fire which suddenly broke out on 2 September 2018.  


25.

The Palace of Persepolis, ceremonial capital of the ancient Persian Empire. It was destroyed by forces under Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

Ooo goody - a quiz.

Well No.6 must be the original Globe theatre on London's Southbank, which burned down on 29 June 1613 during a production of Shakespeare's 'Henry VIII' when a theatrical cannon misfired and set the roofing thatch alight. No one was hurt, except a man whose burning breeches were put out with a bottle of ale!

And No. 10 is the Hindenburg airship, which burst into flames on 6 May 1937 while attempting to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey.

... the others however don't seem as easy.

No.6 is the Globe. I like the story about the burning breeches and the bottle of beer Meles. I hadn't heard that one.

No.10, however, does not relate to the Hindenburg airship nor to Lakehurst naval air station. (That was me being slightly mischievous). It's a reference to the airship's namesake who was president of the country when the building in question burned down.

... and you did actually state they were buildings so I did have my doubts about the Hindenburg. 

No. 25 depicts Alexander the Great ... so is that a reference to his burning of the Palace of Persepolis? Or is it an obtuse reference to the burning of the Library of Alexandria during the siege by Julius Caesar? I'll plump for the first one: Persepolis.

No. 20 is the Royal Arms of the Sweden, the so-called 'Three Crowns' or 'Tre Kronor' and that was also the name of the Royal Castle in Stockholm that burned down sometime in the 17th century.

No.25 is Persepolis and No.20 is Tre Kronor. Well done!

The burning of the Great Library at Alexandria at the time of Julius Caesar is the answer to one of the other clues. Also - the destruction of Persepolis is the yin to the yang of another clue.

Ah ha!  I think I'm getting the measure of your deviousness ... 

No.18 is the comedian Jack Whitehall, and most of the old Tudor/Stuart Palace of Whitehall burned down in 1698 (accidentally by a careless washerwoman apparently).

... And now I really must go and do some work.

Whitehall it is!

Am I the only one playing this?

Vizzer wrote:

No.10, however, does not relate to the Hindenburg airship nor to Lakehurst naval air station. (That was me being slightly mischievous). It's a reference to the airship's namesake who was president of the country when the building in question burned down.

So I'm guessing it's a reference to the burning of the German Reichstag (parliament) building in 1933, just weeks after the German President, Paul von Hindenburg, had asked Hitler, as Chancellor, to dissolve the Reichstag and call for a new parliamentary election. 

Hitler hoped the elections would give him sufficient majority to be able to pass the Enabling Act and so effectively suspend democracy and rule by decree, rather than through the Reichstag. But to pass such an Act required a two-thirds majority vote in the Reichstag which the Nazis didn't have. So during the election campaign they played on fears of an imminent Communist revolution alleging that the only way to stop the Communists was to pass the Enabling Act and give Hitler supreme power. And then, shortly before the elections took place, the Reichstag building was suddenly burnt down, supposedly by a group of communists ...  Hitler duly got his majority, the Enabling Act was passed and the rest, as they say, is history.

Vizzer wrote:

Also - the destruction of Persepolis is the yin to the yang of another clue.

No.2 looks like it's at Persepolis  ... but from your clue I wonder if it's not a depiction of Xerxes rather than Darius. Xerxes doubtless torched many buildings during his reign, but the one that stands out is his burning of the Acropolis in Athens during the second invasion of Greece (in 480 BCE - but I'll admit I had to look the date up).

That's the correct Hindenburg connection for No.10.

The clue for No.2 is indeed a depiction of Xerxes the Great. Son of Darius I and also great-great-great-grandfather of Darius III whose nemesis was Alexander from No.25.

Not an answer though I will try and put my thinking cap on.*  However, when I was learning shorthand and typing one of the "past papers" for the RSA (I think it's the OCR now) mentioned a method for testing how "proof" ale was by pouring ale on a bench and having someone sit on it (with breeches on) and the strength of the ale was tested by how forcefully the ale stuck the breeches to the bench.  (Did I mention that before once).  Anyway on the RSA typewriting exams there used to be a speed test as the first part of the exam and the passage about testing the ale was that part of the exam.

* I usually do miserably at these quizzes though I know they are just a bit of fun.

Deleted because for some reason I had entered the same comment twice.

Number 19. Selhurst Park is the home of Crystal Palace FC, therefore the clue would be for this event in 1936:

Number 7, is a picture of historian Mary Beard, who specialises in Roman history.

Is this one about Nero and fiddles??

Number 1, named after James Madison, fourth President of the United States, who was in office when the White House had a slight accident:

Number 8, Philip II of Spain and Mary I of England. The only thing I can think of for this pair is from Foxe's Book of Martyrs

As Res Hist is more concerned with fact than fiction I don't suppose the comic book Solomon Grundy has any connection with number 13.  I found something about that character on Wikipedia when I googled "fire" and "Solomon Grundy" - there is actually more on Wikipedia if anyone has the inclination to look it up.

"The origins of Grundy's resurrection come from the fact that the Parliament of Trees, a high council of Plant Elementals, tried to turn him into the newest Plant Elemental. However, the process was missing one vital piece: fire, as a Plant Elemental cannot be fully created unless it died in flames. Since Grundy's death did not involve fire at all, the process is not complete, and he becomes a sort of half-functional Plant Elemental. Grundy has been seemingly destroyed on several occasions, only to rise from the swamp again in a new incarnation. Each version of Grundy has been somewhat different from the last, depending on the medium used to dispatch him (and the drawing style of the current artist. The original Grundy, for example, had prominent front teeth). Some have been truly evil; some much less so. Some versions are more mindless than others; some are actually moderately intelligent, recalling the literate, well-spoken monster of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein."


Though my instincts tell me something that could be googled would be too easy for Vizzer's quiz so I'm probably wrong.

No. 11 - Brussels, so would this be the devastating fire resulting from the French bombardment during the Nine Years War which destroyed the the Grand Place (and quite a lot of other buildings too)?

Thinking of number one, there was a fire on Madison Avenue (not in NY, NY) but in Praterson New Jersey in January of this year.  Again, I'm probably wrong because I can't see a cultural or artistic reference to the building (though it's calamitous for the people involved for any building to catch fire.  I think my attempts at these quizzes are like my school reports vis-a-vis my "having a bash" at P.E. and sports - they usually went something along the lines of "LiR (insert my real name) tries".

Edited because Trike had already answered this correctly - and it wasn't my stab at an answer.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

"The origins of Grundy's come from the fact that the Parliament of Trees, a high council of Plant Elementals, tried to turn him into the newest Plant Elemental..."

You may be onto something there, LiR ... the old Houses of Parliament at Westminster burned down in 1834 and were "resurrected" in the current building.

LiR - let's just hope for the tester's sake that that sticky ale bench was indoors and there weren't any wasps about.

Re Clue 13 - it's not about the comic book. If I were to say note the first name of Mr Grundy from the nursery rhyme then that might be seen as the clue going for a Song.

Well done Trike for getting the Crystal Palace. And also the White House (that could have been one of the trickier clues).

Number 7 is a Roman ruler but not Nero. The clue to who it is, is his famous quote written in red graffitti which Mary Beard has just spray painted onto the wall.

Number 8 does depict Philip II of Spain and Mary I of England but it's buildings rather than people which are featured in this quiz. Look to the groom's realm for this one.

Meles - No.11 was a palace in Brussels but this one survived the Nine Years War.

The burning down of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster is the answer to one of the clues but not Clue 13.

Ah ha! ... in that case No.11 is the Koudenberg Palace in Brussels which burned down sometime around the mid 18th century.

And talking about palaces, no.23 is the statue of Hans Christian Andersen's 'Little Mermaid' ... didn't the Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen burn down at some time?

And no.13 - The biblical King Solomon is credited with building the first great temple at Jerusalem, which was subsequently destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchanezzar.

Number 7. Would that be Veni, Vidi, Vici that Professor Beard has sprayed on the wall??

If it is Julius Caesar, than I'd guess the answer is the Library at Alexandria, burned down during the Siege of that city.

Apologies in advance for this answer to Number 21:

Well, this doesn't answer any of the questions so sorry in advance.  I've a feeling I may have mentioned the sticky pants test before somewhere here...I've just looked it up and seems it was a myth (though it was mentioned in a book - Frederick Backwood's "Inns, Ales and Drinking Customs of Old England", 1911) - so maybe it should be on the myths thread.  The blog where I found the debunking was "Martin Cornell's Zythophile". The link I've copied was truncated (which sometimes means the link defaults to the front page of the blog [url=zythophile.co.uk/false-ale-quotes/myth-3-medieval-ale...]zythophile.co.uk/false-ale-quotes/myth-3-medieval-ale...[/url]  the actual page has the heading "
[size=33]MYTH 3: MEDIEVAL ALE-CONNERS WORE LEATHER BREECHES AND TESTED ALE BY POURING SOME ON A WOODEN BENCH AND THEN SITTING IN IT AND SEEING IF THEY STUCK TO THE BENCH"  [/size]

I wasn't lying about the sticky pants story being on an old RSA typing speed test.  As typing speed rather than historical knowledge was being tested I don't suppose that really mattered so much in the context.

EDITED - I can protested my honesty twice in the same sentence when once would have sufficed.

A stab in the dark, the ice castle looks very difficult to reach - the Forbidden City (Beijing) was struck by lightning and burned down "about nine months after the Forbidden City was inaugurated".  A link to the site from whence I took the information.  [url=History of the Forbidden City — 1402 to the Present]History of the Forbidden City — 1402 to the Present[/url]

www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/forbidden-city/

Number 5 is an actual Phoenix. Does it refer to Phoenix, Arizona which had a couple of major fires in the late 19th century??

I can't see the pictures at the moment but that could be my computer playing up.  There was one question - though without the pictures I'm at a loss to recall which one it was - which showed a picture of an orange drink.  Was it Buck's Fizz?  Cliveden House in Berkshire burnt down (mostly) in 1795 and there was another bad fire in 1849.  Cliveden House was built originally by the then Duke of Buckingham - though from what I can deduce it was no longer in the ownership of that family at the times of either of the fires.

The pictures have come back as mysteriously as they disappeared and the question is no. 22.

That's right Meles - No. 11 was the Koudenberg Palace in Brussels while No.23 is the Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen. And No. 13 is indeed the ancient temple of Jerusalem.  

Trike - Number 7 is the Library at Alexandria. Number 21, however, is not Disco (love the link).
What Number 21 shows is a musical staff - sometimes called a 'stave'.
Number 5 is an actual Phoenix but not the city in Arizona. The spelling is written in a major European language.

Not the Forbidden City LiR. Clue 15 relates to the season known for ice and snow.
Neither is No. 22 Cliveden House. The cocktail shown is a Bellini. This links Clue 22 to Clue 5.

Lost a post again. Vizzer.  Some works by Bellini were destroyed in the fire at the Doge's Palace, Venice in 1577.  Amsterdam Town Hall burned down in 1652 - could that be item 4, tulips being flowers linked to the Netherlands.  Anyone else remember Max Bygraves singing "When it's spring again, I'll bring again, Tulips from Amsterdam."?

If it's true that one learns by one's mistakes I should be a veritable sage by the end of this quiz!

Vizzer wrote:

Clue 15 relates to the season known for ice and snow.

So ... no. 15 depicts a palace in winter, a 'winter palace' you might say, or indeed maybe 'The Winter Palace' - the Imperial Russian Palace in St Petersburg - perhaps. And I think Peter the Great's original great palace did suffer a major fire, of which the only building still surviving today is now the Hermitage Museum, no?

You're on fire LiR! No. 22 is the Doge's Palace, Venice and No. 4 is Amsterdam Town Hall.

Well done Meles - No. 15 is the Imperial Russian Palace in St Petersburg. Peter the Great's original palace didn't suffer fire itself but was rebuilt several times before a fire did eventually strike. One of those rebuildings had been ordered by Peter himself during his own lifetime.

Oh, did I actually get a couple?  I'm wondering - I can remember the Mackintosh building in Glasgow School of Art catching fire in 2014.  It was in the news at the time.  So could that be number 3?

I can remember there was a ruined church (it had been bombed in Word War II) in the City of London.  You could go and eat your sarnies there if it was a nice day.  However, looking on line that wasn't the church of St James the Less so I'm still mystified about number 12.

Deleted because of a double post - I've done that more than once lately.  Don't know how!  Oh, and the picture for no. 17 has shrunk to just a little box (or is that my computer doing it?).

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Deleted because of a double post - I've done that more than once lately.  Don't know how!  Oh, and the picture for no. 17 has shrunk to just a little box (or is that my computer doing it?).

Same with me Lady. Nearly each time lately. And when I see "another message is posted while you "composed" your message", I immediately "copy" my message and if there is no real new message I post again "my" message.
But your method is better, let it all go and if you have a double post, delete it immediately, as I now see you can...

Kind regards from Paul.

That's now a hat-trick for your LiR. The 'hat' or rather the hood for the rubber raincoat invented in the Georgian era by Scottish chemist Charles Mackintosh (no known relation to Charles Rennie) was the main clue to number 3. It was indeed a reference to the Glasgow School of Art.

Number 12 is St James and the building is in London (or rather Westminster) but is not a church.

Re no.17 - the image seems fine on my desktop but is disappearing on my tablet. I'll see if I can find out why and fix the link.
Edit: - I've fixed that link for no.17 LiR. Let me know if it's still not working for you or if you (or anyone else) is having difficulty with any of the other images.

Number 8, would that refer to the attack on Cadiz in 1587??
The burning of Armada ships in the port or  "Singeing of the King's Beard" as Drake put it.

Number 17, another Parisian fire ??

The burning of the Hotel de Ville during the Paris Commune of 1871:

Number 14 is the Houses of Parliament fire.

Took place on the 16th October 1834, when the Prime Minister was Lord Melbourne. The Australian city taking its' name from the PM.


Turner's interpretation of the Fire:

Am I right in thinking 9 is a Windsor knotted tie?

In which case could it be this from 1992 ?

No. 24 - Brazil nuts. The National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro was badly damaged by a fire just last year.

Number 12, St James Palace, Westminster.

As in "Ambassador to the Court of St James".

There was a fire in 1809, which burnt down the royal apartments.

Number 8 isn't Cadiz - but that's a good guess Trike. The building in question is closely associated with Philip II but the fire didn't necessarily take place during his lifetime.
Number 17 does refer to the Paris Commune but the building in this case is the one which wasn't rebuilt.
Well done with Number 14 - yes - the Houses of Parliament and also Number 12 St James's Palace.

You are indeed right nordmann - Clue 9 is a Windsor knot and the answer is Windsor Castle.

And spot-on there Meles - the National Museum of Brazil suffering last year probably the worst museum fire ever recorded.

OK so if no.8 is a building closely associated with Philip II but the fire took place after his lifetime, then I'm guessing it is the Escorial monastery/palace just outside Madrid.

It's a good guess as No. 8 is indeed El Escorial.

Number 17, in that case it must be the Tuileries Palace, also burned down during the Commune.


The Tuileries Palace photographed in 1871 from the Louvre;

I'm a bit of an ignoramus musically.  A firtle round the internet has said that Guido d'Arrezo is credited with having invented the stave.  I think the stave in the picture is the upper stave, the G stave (though isn't it the key of C - I seem to remember that C was (and presumably still is) the key without any sharps or flats denoted.  I can't see anything to do with fire with Gd'A - all I've been able to find beside the fact that he is said to have originated the stave is that he was a monk.  I'm sure if I've got that wrong the people who are gifted musically who visit this website will let me know.  (Thinking of 21 obviously).

I don't know many of the modern singers either (not the pop ones at least) so 18 eludes me.

You got it in the end Trike. Yes - Number 17 is the Tuileries Palace.

LiR - the word 'stave' is indeed key to Clue 21, but the musical reference ends there. As a word, stave can have other meanings away from music.