Long disputed, the Sacré-Coeur in Paris will finally be classified
Recently, the Council of Paris gave the green light to ask the State to grant the famous basilica the recognition that gives it the highest level of protection. This decision comes after years of controversy around this building, which has long been a symbol of the division between two Frances, one ultra-Catholic and the other anti-clerical.
Built at the top of the Montmartre hill, in the north of the French capital, this white stone building in the Romano-Byzantine style, 85 meters high, is both a monument familiar to Parisians and an essential stopover for tourists, with ” nearly 11 million visitors each year,” according to its rector, Father Stéphane Esclef.
Why does this ranking only occur today? The history of this sanctuary dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, property of the town hall of Paris, is sensitive.
The project was launched after the defeat of France against Prussia (1870) and after the Commune (March to May 1871), a bloody insurrectionary episode that began with the capture of cannons on the site of the building. In 1873, the National Assembly, dominated by conservatives, declared the basilica of public utility.
“The building, from the outset, carried the opinion of a politically very divisive fringe, the ultra-Catholics” who wanted to “subdue a district deemed insurrectionary in the North-East of Paris”, but also “to expiate the Commune of 1871 as well as all revolutions since 1789″, explains Éric Fournier, lecturer at the University of Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Since then, he has been associated with the repressive “moral order” of the time. The monument, which took a very long time to be built (from 1875 to 1923), was regularly the subject of controversy between politicians and between historians, until Tuesday, October 11, during a debate at the Council of Paris.
“The culmination of this repression is the construction of this odious religious edifice on these deaths, which are estimated at nearly 30,000”, declared the elected Communist Raphaëlle Primet, for whom “this classification remains a affront to the memory of the communards”.
“Two Stories”
“This additional decision appears as a new burial of this revolution, a step against this memory,” added Sylvie Braibant, co-president of the association Les Amis de la Commune.
But for Éric Fournier, who nevertheless claims to be “left-wing”, this “memorial conflict today is a rearguard fight” when “we see how familiar the monument has become over the years”.
Karen Taïeb, the heritage assistant of the City of Paris, argued that the classification authorized “the square Louise-Michel, which bears the name of a great personality of the Commune”. This “allows us to create a dialogue between these two stories without forgetting either of them”.
Concretely, the classification as historical monuments will allow any work to be covered “up to 40% of the budget” by the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, against 20% for an inscription, the lower level of protection obtained in 2020, said Ms. Taïeb.
“Even if history has been turbulent, we cannot stay with a backward vision of things, we must move forward and see that this place is now emblematic”, underlines Father Stéphane Esclef. Among the main projects that he “wants to see succeed”, demonstrate “easy access for people with reduced mobility”, but also “renovation work on the Cavaillé-Coll organ, in a deplorable state for six years”.
In the longer term, he would like to “open the crypt to visitors”, choosing currently impossible “because, in terms of security, the means of access are not suitable to accommodate a large number” of people.
The new status of the basilica is also a welcome decision, while the town hall of the 18th arrondissement of Paris is campaigning to obtain the registration of the Montmartre hillock as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Pierrick YVON and Karine PERRET/AFP
Recently, the Council of Paris gave the green light to ask the State to grant the famous basilica the recognition that gives it the highest level of protection. This decision comes after years of controversy around this building, which has long been a symbol of the division between two Frances, one ultra-Catholic and the other anti-clerical. Built in…