New coroversy in Notre Dame! – ISNA
Weeks before Notre Dame Cathedral reopens after a devastating fire, the cathedral has been embroiled in coroversy over charging visitors to eer.
French Culture Minister Rashida Dati suggested this week that tourists and visitors to Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral, known as the “Soul of France” and one of the world’s great architectural treasures, should help preserve the crumbling cathedral. coury, pay 5 euros as erance.
While famous cathedrals in neighboring couries, including Spain, Italy and Britain, routinely charge tourists an erance fee, France’s Roman Catholic Church strongly opposes the idea, with experts warning it could even be illegal.
Notre Dame Cathedral is set to reopen on December 8, after miraculously escaping total destruction in April 2019, when flames tore through its wooden beams and lead roof, toppling its massive spire, and then the project A major restoration of this historical building began for five years.
French Preside Emmanuel Macron said at the time: “This church, visited by 12 to 14 million people a year before the fire, is our history, our literature, our collective imagination and the place where all our great momes, our wars and our freedoms We have experienced This is the ceer of our life.”
France’s culture minister also told Le Figaro newspaper: “Across Europe, people have to pay to visit importa religious buildings and my simple proposal is that all tourists to Notre Dame be charged an erance fee. The scheme could generate up to €75m (£62m) a year, which will go eirely towards a major program to protect France’s religious heritage. Notre Dame can save all the churches of France. “It will be an amazing symbol.”
French Ierior Minister Bruno Reitaeu also welcomed the idea, telling Radio France that “if €5 can save France’s religious heritage, it’s a good idea.”
The French national heritage charity has described the situation of many churches and monasteries in this coury as very worrying, so that about 5,000 are in danger and nearly 500 have been closed due to their very bad conditions.
“We are glad that politicians are finally starting to understand the threat to our religious monumes, €75 million a year could help preve them from disappearing,” said Guillaume Poitrinal, preside of the foundation.
Many European cathedrals charge tourists. A ticket to eer the Duomo (Milan’s cathedral) costs between €10 and €30, while a ticket to visit St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice costs a reasonable €3 (plus €10 for the bell tower).
In Spain, the cost of visiting the Mosque-Church of Córdoba is 13 euros, the Church of Seville is 12 euros, and the Church of Lasagrada Familia in Barcelona is 26 euros. Caerbury Cathedral in the UK charges £17, Westminster Cathedral £30 and St. Paul’s Old Cathedral £25 as an erance fee.
The Lasagrada Familia church in Barcelona, Spain, which is the masterpiece of Ahony Godio and the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world, has earned more than 125 million euros in 2023 from nearly 5 million visitors.
However, the French Catholic Church of Notre Dame still firmly adheres to the principles of free access for all, worshipers and tourists alike, although some churches charge visitors to eer certain parts of the building, such as bell towers, tombs, and vaults.
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