More than five years after being nearly destroyed by a fire, one of Paris's most iconic landmarks is nearly ready to be reopened - but not without controversy.
The Notre Dame Cathedral refurbishment is under fire from locals for not sticking with tradition, with almost 13,000 people signing a petition demanding the French government cancel plans to replace 19th-century stained glass windows with "contemporary creations."
The windows "are an integral part of the history and soul of Notre-Dame, having survived the ages and miraculously survived the fire of 2019," according to the petitioners, who accused the government of succumbing to "woke ideology."
An earlier petition by the magazine La Tribune de l’Artwas signed by almost 200,000 people. The Macron government has been accused of "vandalism" and of breaking the country’s heritage preservation laws with its attempt to install the new-style windows in a church described as mixing Gothic and Romanesque styles of architecture.
The historical landmark dating to the 1100s is due to be reopened on December 7, more than five years after it was nearly ruined by a blaze that made world headlines as firefighters battled for almost a day to control it.
The reopening ceremony is set for the eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, one of the most important celebrations on the Catholic calendar.
However, despite the significance of the event, the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics is not going to take part. While travelling back to Rome after an official visit to East Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore in September, Pope Francis said that he would not be taking up the French Government’s invitation to attend the ceremony.
Notre Dame was visited by around 12 million people a year before the 2019 fire, which was put down to faulty wiring. There have been fires at dozens of French churches in recent years, some of which have been arson. In early September, a man described by police as a multiple offender was arrested after a fire destroyed the Church of the Immaculate Conception near Calais.
That blaze followed a fire in July in the tower of the cathedral in Rouen in Normandy. Joan of Arc, France's patron saint, was executed in the town in 1431 by an invading English army. The cathedral is the burial place of the heart of Richard the Lionheart, a 12th century Norman-English king.
Local News
