The Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre, an emblematic building in Paris, has been listed as a historical monument, the first step towards its classification in the first half of next year, the Ministry of Culture said on Wednesday.
The inscription of the basilica had been proposed by the regional direction of cultural affairs (DRAC) of Ile-de-France. The regional commission for heritage and architecture (CRPA) unanimously gave a favourable opinion on 13 October last, receiving the explicit support of the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot.
The file will now be transmitted to the National Commission for Heritage and Architecture (CNPA), which is responsible for ruling on the classification of the site: an even more favourable status for the protection of a historic monument. According to the heritage code, a building listed as a historic monument can receive up to 40% of state subsidies for its conservation and renovation work, while a listed building can benefit from subsidies without percentage limits.
The basilica, built in the 1870s to the plans of the architect Paul Abadie, as well as its surroundings, are concerned by this registration and classification procedure: this concerns in particular the Square Louise Michel, a place of commemoration of the Commune.
10 million visitors per year
It was partly on the Butte Montmarte that it was born 150 years ago and was repressed. All signals are green for a classification in the first half of 2021, said Wednesday at the ministry. 150 years after the Commune, this new status has a symbolic meaning of reconciliation, since it protects at the same time a place of Catholic worship and the theatre of the revolt of the people of Paris, the same source stressed.
Since 2012, the state has undertaken to extend the protection of religious buildings in Paris, and churches such as the Trinity have benefited from this. The Sacré-Coeur, which symbolises Paris worldwide in the same way as Notre-Dame or the Eiffel Tower, is visited (outside the Covid period) by 10 million people a year.
The monumental basilica has long inflamed the debate between clerics and anticlerics. Its construction was in response to a wish expressed in October 1871 to "atone" for France's defeat by the Prussian army.
But the first stone was not laid until 1874, after the Commune. A total of 66 churches are protected (listed or classified) in Paris, out of 1,950 sites and buildings that are protected. Around 44,500 buildings are protected in France.
Read also:
⋙ Pastry shop, orchard, silkworm factory: 101 sites in danger chosen by the Heritage Foundation
⋙ The little secrets of Paris: Fernando, the circus that disappeared at the foot of the Montmartre hill
THEMES ASSOCIATED WITH THE ARTICLE
Tourism
Paris