Will we soon have to pay to visit a church in France? Minister of Culture Rachida Dati's proposal to set up a ticket office in front of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral to finance “a national plan to safeguard religious heritage” is controversial.
The state of religious heritage in France is increasingly worrying. Taking a close interest in it is unanimous. According to the Observatory of these architectural treasures, of the 50,000 religious buildings listed in France, 5,000 are in danger of collapsing while 500 are already closed to the public. And, saving even 1,604 of them, the Heritage Foundation estimated, would cost 763 million euros. However, paying access to some of these monuments, such as possibly Notre-Dame de Paris, inaugurated on December 7, raises many eyebrows. Even if the windfall could bring in around 75 million euros.
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The opposition of the diocese
Enough to give pause to the municipalities in charge of churches that are often rural, abandoned or requiring repairs at exorbitant prices? As municipalities see their state funding shrinking, they alone cannot take on these projects with their own funds. Some deploy a D system like Prats-de-Mollo where the bells of a chapel could be completely removed to lighten the structure. Others rely on donations collected by the Heritage Foundation, the Foundation for the Protection of French Art, participatory prize pools and patronage. In Aude, Eric Menassi, councilor of Trèbes and departmental president of the Association of Mayors of France has not yet discussed it with colleagues. In its 433 municipalities, “almost 100% of churches need to be renovated. If they are listed as heritage, the percentage of state aid will be higher”, he assures, thinking that Rachida Dati’s project is “perhaps an avenue to explore”.
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His counterpart in the Pyrénées-Orientales and mayor of Sainte-Marie la Mer, Edmond Jorda, could not be reached to react to the idea, recently launched by the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati. However, it immediately comes up against a law. That of 1905 known as “separation of Church and State”. It attributes ownership of religious buildings to the municipalities, “who must make them available to the faithful for worship and ensure their maintenance and renovation”. A little further on, the text rules out any interpretation. “The visit to the buildings and the exhibition of classified movable objects will be public, they will not give rise to any tax or fee.”
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Certainly, in Europe, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona like the Basilica of Saint Mark in Venice cannot be visited free of charge… Would France be ready to take the plunge? The diocese of Paris opposes this, recalling the principle of “free entry into churches and cathedrals”, notably justified by the ecclesiastical mission “to welcome every man and every woman.”
