A cathedral tower with a black plume of smoke emerging from its spire against a backdrop of a cityscape and distant hills. The foreground features green foliage partially obscuring the view.
Smoke billows from the spire of Rouen Cathedral in Rouen, northern France on July 11, 2024. Photo by Patrick Streiff/ AFP via Getty Images

The covering around the spire of a French cathedral once painted by Claude Monet caught fire Thursday, prompting fears of a repeat of Paris’s Notre Dame, which was devastated by fire in 2019.

The fire on the spire of the cathedral, Notre-Dame de Rouen in the village of Rouen, broke out at around noon local time, city officials said in a statement. Police set up a security perimeter as firefighters battled the blaze.

A team of 63 firefighters was able to contain the blaze by 2 p.m., and authorities said the flames only affected the metal structure of the spire and the protective tarpaulin surrounding the site.

Caroline Dutarte, a Rouen official, said in remarks to The New York Times that nobody was injured by the fire and the damage was not too extensive.

Still, authorities said the building will need to be monitored. The covering had been placed around the spire to protect it amid a restoration that has been ongoing since 2016. The cause of the fire is currently unknown, officials said.

The cathedral forecourt and the building itself remain inaccessible and certain bus routes were temporarily diverted from the area, causing transit delays. Concerts scheduled for the cathedral on Thursday night were cancelled, authorities added on social media.

Claude Monet, Rouen Cathedral, West Façade, Sunlight (1894). Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Photo: VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images.

Notre-Dame de Rouen’s history dates back centuries to basilica from the 4th century. A predecessor of the current building was destroyed by Vikings in 841. In the year 1200, a Romanesque complex on the site was again largely destroyed by fire and rebuilt in its Gothic style, suffering continued damage from wars over the years.

After World War II, in which it suffered damage from Allied bombing, significant efforts were taken preserve it, and it is now considered one of the best examples of Gothic architecture in France.

The cathedral was a major muse for Monet, who painted it more than 30 times, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, which has one of the paintings on view. Others are held by institutions including the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

“Moving from one canvas to another as each day progressed, he painted the facade with highly textured brushstrokes that convey the aspect of sculpted stone and make the atmosphere and light palpable,” the Met’s online collection noted.

Monet once wrote of the cathedral in Rouen: “As long as the sun is on it, there will be as many ways of being Rouen Cathedral as man can make divisions in time.”