For the renovation of Notre-Dame de Paris, the Church presents its project – The HuffPost

via Associated Press

ARCHITECTURE – Modernizing Notre-Dame de Paris to “better welcome” the public while avoiding distorting the cathedral: this is the challenge facing the reconstruction of the building partially burned in 2019. This Thursday, December 9, around twenty experts in heritage and historical monuments gathered within the National Heritage and Architecture Commission (CNPA) to attend the presentation by the Diocese of Paris of this long-awaited renovation. .

The vote which took place at midday was favorable, with two reservations.

The diocese intends to benefit from the restoration of the famous Gothic cathedral, devastated on April 15, 2019 by a gigantic fire who had upset the whole world, to give it a new lease of life, before its reopening scheduled for 2024. Welcoming 12 million visitors each year, everything related to the cathedral is talked about outside France. The foreign press, including The Telegraph, mentioned a new “politically correct Disneyland”.

❌Paris’ fire-ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral risks resembling a “politically correct Disneyland” under controversial plans for its renovation seen by the Daily Telegraph https://t.co/lChJqzlQOs

– The Telegraph (@Telegraph) November 26, 2021

Because contemporary artists like the French father of urban art Ernest Pignon-Ernest, artists Anselm Kiefer or Louise Bourgeois could see their works “dialogue” with those of old masters like the Le Nain brothers or Charles Le Brun, according to The world. Information confirmed to AFP “as examples” by the Ministry of Culture, which is “not at all opposed”. Light at face height, benches on casters with lights to replace age-old chairs, are also part of the project. This bench project was retested by the experts who asked the diocese to review its copy.

“Let’s respect the work of Viollet-le-Duc”

But some deplore the modernization project. Such proposals “completely distort the decor and the liturgical space”, curry a hundred personalities, including the host Stéphane Bern or the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, in a column published Wednesday in the newspaper Le Figaro. “Let’s respect the work of Viollet-le-Duc, let’s respect the work of the artists and craftsmen who have worked to offer us this jewel”, they add, denouncing a project where according to them “very often silliness competes with kitsch” .

For Senator Albéric de Montgolfier, who chairs the CNPA, the commission must first and foremost examine whether it respects “heritage laws” and “reversibility” (of certain choices). He welcomes the “many reconciliations” that have taken place since the start of the project two and a half years ago between “visions that could be opposed”, concerning the ambulatory route or the lighting.

A “deep cleaning”

On the menu of the announced renewal: an airy route for tourists and faithful from all over the world around a refined central axis, from the nave to the choir, which hosts 2,400 offices and 150 annual concerts with a “deep cleaning” of the 14 chapels, already very dilapidated before the fire. This cleaning should make it possible to rediscover the “Mays”, large altar paintings ordered each year from great artists, between 1630 and 1707, by the corporation of goldsmiths who offered them to the cathedral.

Honorary general curator of heritage and a great friend of the French painter Pierre Soulages, Alfred Pacquement is a supporter of a renewal “which respects the architecture, history and sacredness” of the religious edifice. But he “would find it unfortunate if nothing changed,” he told AFP.

Responsible for the project down to the smallest detail, Father Drouin assures us that it is a question of “better welcoming” the public in “respect of worship”. He sticks to functional, pragmatic and didactic solutions such as projecting on walls biblical sentences or Christian spiritual traditions in several languages.

See also on The HuffPost: These oaks will become the spire of Notre-Dame-de-Paris