Professional mountain climbers wearing protective face masks help dismantle scaffolding around the Notre Dame Cathedral over a year after the 2019 fire. Photo / Getty Images
Professional mountain climbers wearing protective face masks help dismantle scaffolding around the Notre Dame Cathedral over a year after the 2019 fire. Photo / Getty Images
Say what you will about the French but you can't fault their passion when it comes to arts and culture.
For almost three years Paris' Notre Dame cathedral has been shrouded in scaffolding after it mysteriously burst into flames.
Reconstruction of the cathedral is already underway, however, the process hasn'tbeen without controversy. Approved designs have sparked a new outrage among the public.
The 858-year-old gothic building is managed by the diocese of Paris, which shared part of the reconstruction plan in May. On December 9, the plan was approved by the French National Heritage and Architecture Commission.
The plan proposed using the redesign as an opportunity to bridge the gap between traditional art and modernity.
The restoration of the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was damaged by the fire in April 2019 has left the city with many difficult decisions. Photo / Getty Images
A "discovery trail" would be built inside the cathedral, which would project excerpts of the Bible onto the walls in different languages. Around 2,000 religious objects like sculptures, confessional boxes and altars would be relocated to make more space for 12 million visitors who would visit each year.
Some items such as confessionals could be replaced altogether by contemporary paintings by Anselm Kiefer and Louise Bourgeois, and old wooden seats swapped for "mobile benches", reported France24.
French citizens, it seems, were not on board with this futuristic refresh.
Parisian architect Maurice Culot claimed the interior decoration was as if "Disney were entering Notre Dame."
More than a hundred public figures signed a letter of concern published in one of the country's largest daily publications Le Figaro, called "Notre-Dame de Paris: What the fire spared, the diocese wants to destroy."
By trying to create a new experience in the cathedral, the letter said developments would "completely distort the decor and the liturgical space" and reject Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's intentions, when he restored the Notre Dame in the 19th century.
The heritage commission did not approve the diocese's proposal without amends according to a statement from the minister of culture. A request to remove statues of saints from some chapels was denied while the design for "mobile benches" would be reviewed.
The cathedral is set to open (with or without the glitzy wall projections and contemporary art) in 2024 when Paris hosts the Olympics.
