Around fifty hams have been matured since 2022 in the bell tower of the Saint-Flour cathedral (Cantal), an initiative threatened by a decision by the Bâtiments de France. But the new Minister of Culture agreed with the Cantal refiners, which pleased others in Puy-de-Dôme, who practice the same method in the Sainte-Madeleine-de-Cros church.
At the end of 2023, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Drac) of Cantal took an administrative decision, followed by the Bâtiments de France, asking to remove before December 31 the fifty hams which were maturing in one of the towers of the cathedral de Saint-Flour, a regular practice for more than a year. Reason: “fat drippings laden with salt” on the boards of the bell tower were damaging them, and the presence of food moths had been noted on hams, further indicating that this activity posed safety problems.
The Cantal prefecture, however, gave a reprieve to the rector of the cathedral at the origin of the project, Philippe Boyer, as well as to the company responsible for this refining in the highest cathedral in Europe, the Altitude cooperative.
The experience continues
And who should decide the dispute? The new Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati. Which made its decision at the end of October, reports La Montagne. According to a press release from her ministry, “the Minister of Culture wants a new experiment to be implemented, at the end of which a transparent and contradictory assessment will be drawn up, which will notably take into account all security conditions fire”. She therefore asks the Cantal prefecture “to renew this experiment in curing ham in the cathedral of Saint-Flour”.
In Puy-de-Dôme too, hams can breathe
In other words, the maturing of these hams called “Florus solatium”, which have become prestigious, can continue. Which is also reassuring in Cros, in Puy-de-Dôme, where the History, Heritage and Territory association refines its hams in the same ecumenical way, but in smaller quantities (three or four hams hung on the highest beam of the bell tower and sold at the village festival) and for less prestige, since it is not a cathedral but a simple church, Sainte-Madeleine. The activity once threatened in Cantal led to fears here that that of the church of Cros “was going to be attacked for three hams”.
Today, these Cros hams are reassured by the decision of Rachida Dati, now in the odor of sanctity among Cantal and Puydôme ham refiners.
France
