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FRENCH HISTORY

French chapel with Holocaust mural seeks saviour

A chapel deep in the French countryside featuring a Holocaust-themed mural needs a new owner to save it from falling into disrepair, local officials say.

French chapel with Holocaust mural seeks saviour
A mural made by French painter and survivor of the extermination camp Miklos Bokor (1927-2019) in the Malodene chapel, in Martel, south-western France. Photo by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP

Miklos Bokor, a Hungarian-French artist and World War II death camp survivor, picked the Maraden chapel to create his gigantic work in memory of the genocide of six million Jews under the Nazis.

But the 12th-century chapel, nestled between trees off a small road near Martel in the southwestern Lot département, is falling victim to the region’s inclement weather.

Some of the roof’s flagstones have come loose, and the rare visitors can clearly hear the rhythmic dripping of raindrops on the chapel floor, while humidity rises up the walls.

The mural itself is still intact, with hundreds of dark or bright entangled human silhouettes – engraved or painted – covering the walls and vault.

Bokor found the chapel “by chance”, said his close friend, Christine Simonart, a former pharmacist from nearby Martel.

“When he walked in, he immediately imagined it as a canvas for a mural” and acquired the building, she told AFP.

Born in 1927 in Budapest, Bokor was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. Both his parents died in Nazi death camps.

After the war, Bokor taught himself to paint, and settled in France in the 1960s, spending summers in the Lot.

He painted the chapel mural, which also contains biblical scenes and his own recollections from Auschwitz, between 1998 and 2002.

“It’s almost like a testament, a last artistic will,” said Simonart. Bokor died in 2019 in Paris.

Calling the mural “an incredible testimony,” Raphael Daubet, a former local mayor and now member of the French Senate, said he wants to help preserve the threatened heritage.

Bokor’s heirs have put the chapel up for sale, asking €500,000 based on the prices fetched by the artist’s paintings over the years, said estate agent Hugues de Pradel who is handling the sale.

“We have to act quickly,” said Daubet. “I have written to foundations, especially those dedicated to the memory of the Shoah, but I have not managed to find any institution able to make this acquisition,” he said.

As a historic monument, the chapel would qualify for public subsidies for any restoration work, “but we need a buyer who immediately makes it available in the public interest”.

Bokor’s work was regularly exhibited in France and elsewhere during his lifetime, and a number of his paintings are now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.

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POLITICS

8 things you never knew about Andorra

The tiny statelet nestled in the Pyrenees mountains that mark the border between France and Spain hit the headlines with its new language requirement for residency permits – but what else is there to know about Andorra?

8 things you never knew about Andorra

This week, Andorra passed a law setting a minimum Catalan language requirement for foreign residents

It’s not often the tiny, independent principality in the mountains makes the news – other than, perhaps, when its national football team loses (again) to a rather larger rival in international qualifying competitions.

The national side are due to play Spain in early June, as part of the larger nation’s warm-up for the Euro 2024 tournament in Germany. Here, then, in case you’re watching that match, at Estadio Nuevo Vivero, are a few facts about Andorra that you can astound your fellow football fans with…

Size matters

Small though it is – it has an area of just 468 square kilometres, a little more than half the size of the greater Paris area – there are five smaller states in Europe, 15 smaller countries in the world by area, and 10 smaller by population.

People

Its population in 2023 was 81,588. That’s fewer people than the city of Pau, in southwest France (which is itself the 65th largest town in France, by population).

High-living

The principality’s capital, Andorra la Vella (population c20,000 – about the same population as Dax) is the highest capital city in Europe, at an elevation of 1,023 metres above sea level. 

Spoken words

The official language – and the one you’ll need for a residency permit – is Catalan. But visitors will find Spanish, Portuguese and French are also commonly spoken, and a fair few people will speak some English, too.

Sport

We’ve already mentioned the football. But Andorra’s main claim to sporting fame is as a renowned winter sports venue. With about 350km of ski runs, across 3,100 hectares of mountainous terrain, it boasts the largest ski area in the Pyrenees.

Economic model

Tourism, the mainstay of the economy, accounts for roughly 80 percent of Andorra’s GDP. More than 10 million tourists visit every year.

It also has no sales tax on most items – which is why you’ll often find a queue at the French border as locals pop into the principality to buy things like alcohol, cigarettes and (bizarrely) washing powder, which are significantly cheaper.

Head of state

Andorra has two heads of state, because history. It’s believed the principality was created by Charlemagne (c748 – 814CE), and was ruled by the count of Urgell up to 988CE, when it was handed over to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Urgell. The principality, as we know it today, was formed by a treaty between the bishop of Urgell and the count of Foix in 1278.

Today, the state is jointly ruled by two co-princes: the bishop of Urgell in Catalonia, Spain and … the president of France, who (despite the French aversion to monarchy and nobility) has the title Prince of Andorra, following the transfer of the count of Foix’s claims to the Crown of France and, subsequently, to the head of state of the French Republic. 

Military, of sorts

Andorra does have a small, mostly ceremonial army. But all able-bodied Andorran men aged between 21 and 60 are obliged to respond to emergency situations, including natural disasters.

Legally, a rifle should be kept and maintained in every Andorran household – though the same law also states that the police will supply a firearm if one is required.

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