Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

FRENCH HISTORY

Historic French basilica seeks help to pay for new 90 metre spire

Nearly 180 years after one of Saint-Denis basilica’s twin spires was demolished for safety reasons, work will begin on its restoration, and officials are calling on members of the public to help raise the millions of euros needed.

Published: 6 May 2024 16:34 CEST
Saint-Denis basilica
The Saint-Denis basilica. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Fancy a mediaeval stone?

You might be able to help pay for one if you choose to support the restoration works taking place at the historic Basilica of Saint-Denis, one of the highlights of a trip to the suburb north of Paris.

In order to finance the project, people are being asked to donate to help pay for each individual stone that will help rebuild one of the cathedral’s twin spires that was permanently dismantled in 1847, after the “Tornade de Montville” left it badly damaged.

READ MORE: What you should know about the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis

The devastating tornado destroyed homes, uprooted hundreds of trees and razed three textile mills, killing a reported 70 factory workers, and injuring another 130.

Some 177 years later, long-delayed work to rebuild the 90m spire “stone by stone” is set to begin in the autumn. The rebuild is set to be completed in 2029.

The €37 million renovation will be financed in part by the Interdepartmental Solidarity Fund for Investment (€22 million), the Île-de-France region (€5 million) and the Metropole du Grand Paris (€4 million). 

Public sponsorship is also being sought via the Suivez la Flèche association, which is offering to sponsor the 15,000 “new stones, conforming to the dimensions, shapes and materials of mediaeval stones”. 

Officials hope to raise between €3.5 million and €5 million. 

Donors will be asked to pay between €15 and €3,000 towards each stone – the price set by each block’s location on the spire.

In return, they will receive a digital replica of the stone, along with a certifying non-fungible token (NFT).

Why visit the Basilica?

The area is often overlooked by people visiting France’s capital, but the suburb will play an important role during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The Basilica is one of its key cultural attractions.

The Basilica’s website says it is the final resting place for “forty-two kings, thirty-two queens, sixty-three princes and princesses and ten men of the kingdom rest in peace there. With over seventy recumbent effigies and monumental tombs, the royal necropolis of the basilica is today the most significant group of funerary sculptures from the 12th to the 16th century in Europe.”

And if you do visit then look out for the 12th and 19th-century stained glass windows.

The historically and architecturally important basilica was named after Saint Denis, the first bishop of Paris who is believed to have been buried near the site in 250 CE. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

FRENCH HISTORY

France seeks to save Nazi massacre village from decay

A French village preserved as a reminder of Nazi cruelty since Waffen-SS troops murdered 643 people there in 1944 is in danger of decay, sparking efforts to preserve the site.

Published: 30 May 2024 17:07 CEST
France seeks to save Nazi massacre village from decay

On June 10, 1944, Oradour-sur-Glane in German-occupied southern France became the scene of a massacre of civilians that still shocks the nation to this day.

Possibly as punishment for the killing by the French Resistance of a high-ranking SS member, German troops rounded up everyone they could find in the village and machine-gunned or burned alive men, women and children, torched or razed buildings and destroyed a church.

Postwar president Charles de Gaulle said the “martyr village” should never be rebuilt, but instead kept as a permanent reminder of the horrors of the Nazi occupation for postwar generations.

READ MORE: France’s martyr village: What happened at Oradour-sur-Glane?

‘Survivors are gone’

But 80 years later, village buildings are crumbling, roofs have disappeared and walls are covered in moss, prompting local politicians and descendants of villagers to call for a major conservation effort to keep the memory alive.

“All the survivors are gone, the only witnesses of the massacre are these stones,” said Agathe Hebras, whose grandfather Robert was the last survivor of only six people to escape the SS murder spree. He died last year.

“I am deeply attached to these ruins, like many people here, we can’t let them wither away,” the 31-year-old told AFP. “We need to take care of them as best we can for as long as possible.”

A new, eponymous town built nearby after the war is bustling, but the old ruins — which are owned by the French state and a listed heritage site — are eerily silent.

Listen to The Local’s team discuss Oradour-sur-Glane in an episode of the Talking France podcast.

‘Urgent action’

Some of the crumbling, blackened buildings carry signs like “Hairdresser”, “Cafe”, or “Ironmongery”, reminding visitors that people went about their daily lives here until the murderous assault.

Scattered over 10 hectares are the odd rusty bicycle, sewing machine or shell of a period car.

“We need very, very urgent action,” said Oradour-sur-Glane’s mayor Philippe Lacroix. “As this setting disappears so will remembrance, little by little.”

Carine Villedieu Renaud, 47, the granddaughter of the only couple that survived the massacre, often walks across the ruins on her way to the new town, remembering her grandmother who lost her mother, her sisters and her four-year old daughter in the massacre.

“She would take me for walks among the ruins,” she said. “We would pick flowers and she would tell me about her old life.”

While the grandmother told her stories “without taboo”, other survivors only felt able to speak about the massacre decades later, if at all.

Hebras said her grandfather, who lost two sisters and his mother in the killings, only began to talk about the events in the late 1980s.

“The first generation of children born in Oradour after the massacre, which includes my father, lived through a very hard time because their parents kept silent, believing that they needed to forget to keep on living,” she said.

‘Universal significance’

Since 1946, the government has allocated the equivalent of €200,000 annually for maintenance, in addition to ad hoc spending, like the €480,000 allocated to the village church’s restoration last year.

But much more is needed, said Laetitia Morellet, the regional deputy director for heritage and architecture.

“We don’t want to bring back what was destroyed,” she told AFP. “We want to preserve the state of destruction, because that is what helps people understand this war crime.”

Some €19 million are needed, and an effort to source the money through donations and state financing is underway.

Oradour-sur-Glane could eventually gain “a certain universal significance” beyond the 1944 massacre and World War II, said Benoit Sadry, president of an association grouping the victims’ families.

“What counts is to keep proof that in mass crimes committed during wars it is always the civilian population that pays the highest price,” he said.

SHOW COMMENTS