On the evening of September 19, 1914, Reims Cathedral was nothing more than a smoking pile. Transformed into a hospital on September 15, it sheltered around a hundred wounded soldiers, most of them German. They rested on straw stored against a gate while the chairs were stacked in the chancel. At 7.30 am on September 19, the first shells struck the center of Reims from Fort Berru, and at 8 pm, the cathedral was a ruin. Inside, the 18th-century stalls, King Charles X's coronation carpet, and the archiepiscopal throne were destroyed. Some liturgical objects and the treasure of the cathedral were saved. They are now on display in the adjacent Palace of Tau.