New controversy in Notre Dame! – ISNA

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. country, pay 5 euros as entrance.

While famous cathedrals in neighboring countries, including Spain, Italy and Britain, routinely charge tourists an entrance 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 President 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 moments, our wars and our freedoms We have experienced This is the center of our life.”

France’s culture minister also told Le Figaro newspaper: “Across Europe, people have to pay to visit important religious buildings and my simple proposal is that all tourists to Notre Dame be charged an entrance fee. The scheme could generate up to €75m (£62m) a year, which will go entirely 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 Interior 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 country 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 monuments, €75 million a year could help prevent them from disappearing,” said Guillaume Poitrinal, president of the foundation.

Many European cathedrals charge tourists. A ticket to enter 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. Canterbury Cathedral in the UK charges £17, Westminster Cathedral £30 and St. Paul’s Old Cathedral £25 as an entrance fee.

The Lasagrada Familia church in Barcelona, ​​Spain, which is the masterpiece of Anthony 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 enter certain parts of the building, such as bell towers, tombs, and vaults.

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