Missouri church creates 7-foot-tall Notre Dame Cathedral out of gingerbread
A congregation in Missouri has created a replica of Paris, France’s famous Notre Dame Cathedral out of gingerbread, with the model being seven feet tall and eight feet long.
Members of Holy Trinity Catholic Church of Weston recently put together the large gingerbread structure, which is scheduled to be on display during regular business hours until the first week of January.
Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Platte County, a sister congregation of Holy Trinity, explained in a Facebook post earlier this month that the replica required more than 400 pieces of gingerbread.
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It also needed 175 pounds of flour, 100 pounds of powdered sugar, 60 pounds of brown sugar, 12 pounds of jolly ranchers, and 40 bags of marshmallows, among other sweet supplies.
“After countless hours of work the result is a masterpiece that is 8' x 4' with an amazing height of 7 feet,” stated Holy Trinity of Platte County.
“In addition, on display in the Church will be Nativity Sets from around the world and home baked cookies will be for sale by the pound in the Weston Masonic Lodge on Main Street.”
Lisa Stiffler, a member of Holy Trinity who helped oversee the project, told The Christian Post in comments emailed on Thursday that they used a 3D puzzle of Notre Dame to help figure out the proper dimensions for the gingerbread model.
"From this the structure was built first using approximately 450 cardboard pieces taped together. In November all of the cardboard pieces were disassembled and used as patterns to bake the gingerbread," explained Stiffler.
"The last two weeks of November was dedicated to moving the table and gingerbread pieces to the parish hall of the church and then assembling with royal icing and the final detailed decorating."
Stiffler also told CP that since 2017, they have made other gingerbread models for display at the church, including one of Holy Trinity Catholic Church for its 175th anniversary and another one of the Vatican.
In April, days before Easter Sunday, a fire struck Notre Dame Cathedral, raging for several hours and resulting in extensive damage, including the destruction of the roof and a spire collapse.
Images and videos of the fast-moving fire were widely shared on social media, with many across the world expressing sadness over the severe damage inflicted on the historic structure.
“Notre Dame of Paris in flames. Emotion for a whole nation,” stated French President Emmanuel Macron at the time, as reported by CNN.
“Thoughts for all Catholics and for all French. Like all our countrymen, I'm sad tonight to see this part of us burn.”
Hundreds of millions of Euros were pledged for the rebuilding, which is expected to be a very long term project, according to a recent story by France 24.
“There are gaping holes in the vaults of the ceiling, twisted piles of burned metal and wood, and at the summit, partially burned scaffolding towers overhead, still in danger of collapsing,” reported the outlet last week.
“In front of the cathedral, tents shelter much of the precious debris. Tens of thousands of pieces of stone and some metal that archeologists are in the process of restoring.”
