“If you want to act, now is the time.” Like a final message in a bottle, Julien Lacaze, the president of the heritage preservation association Sites et Monuments, sent these few words to the Heritage Advisor to the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, on Thursday. The aim: to halt the ongoing transformation project on the site of the former monastery of the Sisters of the Visitation, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.
The heritage site, owned by the Diocese of Paris since the departure of a congregation of nuns in the early 2010s, is the subject of a vast transformation project. Objective: to make it a “high place of solidarity”.
The Vacherie, an emblematic building
“We want Rachida Dati to take a classification instance suspending the demolition work,” calls Julien Lacaze, as the project reaches a key stage. He is now tackling the roof of the cow shed, one of the emblematic buildings of the site, hidden between rue Vaugirard and rue du Cherche-Midi.
“After the asbestos removal, tiles from the cow shed began to be removed on Wednesday,” says Julien Lacaze. The battle with the Diocese of Paris has been going on for years, but this new event could mark its epilogue. This umpteenth appeal adds to the flood of messages sent for “months and months” to the Minister of Culture and her close entourage, underlines Sites et Monuments.
“Everything is still savable”
“The cow shed is the symbol of all that. Everything can still be saved and recovered,” insists Julien Lacaze. But after that, it will be too late. The association leader throws in his last weapons by relying on a report from the Heritage Inspectorate submitted last January. A document whose opinion is “favorable” to a “global” protection of the Visitation monastery, “as a witness to a temporal and spiritual way of life.”
The suspension of the construction site, argues Julien Lacaze, can be taken “from hour to hour”. “It would allow us to think about the project differently without pressure for a year,” he continues. “Our dream is to make it an educational urban farm for children and everything is compatible. People are packing their boxes, but Rachida Dati, who is still Minister of Culture, could leave on this decision.”
A major problem: due to the electoral reserve period, the Ministry of Culture is not able to respond, for the moment, to the call from Sites and Monuments, nor to our requests. However, according to our information, contact took place between the ministry and the association this Friday afternoon.
