Macron criticised for insisting undamaged stained-glass panes be replaced with new designs

The new Claire Tabouret-designed windows at an exhibition in Paris, France. Photo / Getty Images

Notre-Dame’s new stained-glass windows have been unveiled despite a backlash over Emmanuel Macron’s apparent “cultural desecration”.

The cathedral’s 19th century windows, classified as historical monuments, suffered no damage in the fire that tore through the gothic building in 2019.

But the French President demanded that they be replaced in order to leave a “contemporary mark” on the restoration.

Critics said the decision was motivated by Macron’s desire to “leave his mark” on the building, “without any regard for the heritage code or for Notre-Dame”.

Six modernist designs by artist Claire Tabouret, 44, were unveiled at an exhibition at the Grand Palais ahead of their installation next year.

Entitled In One Breath, the show features life-sized sketches of the new windows that have been the source of controversy for the past two years.

The six existing windows were commissioned by restoration architects Eugene Viollet-le-Duc and Jean-Baptiste Lassus to reverse damage from the French Revolution.

Located in the south chapel, the large bay “grisaille” ornamental windows are classified as historical monuments.

But in December 2023, Macron announced plans to commission new windows as part of the cathedral’s restoration following the fire.

An online petition against the replacements has garnered more than 323,000 signatures, depicting the scheme as the President’s vanity project.

“The president of the republic has decided on his own, without any regard for the heritage law or Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, to replace the stained glass windows…” begins the petition on Change.org, launched by La Tribune de l’Art.

“How can it be justified to restore stained-glass windows that survived the disaster and then immediately remove them?

“Who gave the head of state a mandate to alter a cathedral that does not belong to him, but to everyone?”

The National Commission for Heritage and Architecture also voted unanimously against the project last summer, while a legal attempt to block the €4 million ($8m) project was rejected by the Paris administrative court last month.

Tabouret was chosen to design the contemporary new windows from a handful of short-listed artists last year.

Each of the 7m-high windows depicts a verse from the Bible about Pentecost, the Christian holiday marking the 50 days after Jesus’s death and the descent of the Holy Spirit on his disciples.

In an interview with Radio France, Tabouret defended her work, saying: “I want to give the public the chance to form their own opinion, because when there’s controversy, there are also a lot of rumours. Here, at least, we can see the works and what they represent.”

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