Heritage
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La Barben: the Prefect supports Rocher Mistral and is overruled by the Council of State
How far will the public authorities go to defend the indefensible in the never-ending case of the Château de La Barben transformed into an amusement park under the name of Rocher Mistral? After…
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Nancy, just like Paris...
While the disappearance of Paris is becoming ever more apparent as the Olympic Games approach in the city managed (if we dare use that term) by Anne Hidalgo, the latter continues to set an…
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Impossible to escape the Olympic Games
"There may be some who would like to do something else..." suggested Raymond Devos, a French comedian, in a falsely ingenuous tone in a sketch entitled "Faites l’amour, pas la guerre" ("Make love,…
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The French Ministry of Culture requests the removal of a non-compliant installation
If the request made by Culture Minister Rachida Dati to Société Foncière Lyonnaise (SFL) the day before yesterday, Thursday 18 April, is acted upon, it is a welcome one. This developer is in charge…
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Fragments of the rood screen at Notre-Dame finally revealed
Last July, we wrote an article about "the obstruction of INRAP", which did not want to give access to the fragments of sculptures from the rood screen of the cathedral discovered during the…
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From Copenhagen to Paris
There is no end to the litany of historic monuments in France and elsewhere in Europe that have gone up in flames while work was underway to restore them. This time it’s Denmark’s turn to be hit by…
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Notre-Dame: a very intrusive choir organ
Notre-Dame should not be a playground for the French President of the Republic or the Archbishop of Paris. No doubt they think they have some legitimacy in the decisions they take, but they have…
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Three paintings sold by a French prefecture...
The sale, which is online only, closes tomorrow at 11am. So it’s very late to be talking about it, but we didn’t find out about it until yesterday, Sunday, and we didn’t get a full reply (obviously…
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Protection du patrimoine : de bonnes mesures qui ne résolvent pas tout
Nous critiquons suffisamment souvent la politique patrimoniale du chef de l’État pour convenir que, pour une fois, les mesures qu’il a annoncées hier en faveur du patrimoine religieux vont dans le…
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The Palais de la Porte Dorée looks after its Art Deco heritage
How can we not talk about resurrection? A complete décor has been reborn for visitors to this iconic French Art Deco monument : the beautiful Salon des Laques has been restored to its original…
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Interview with Mathilde Augé, Executive Director of WMF France
The World Monument Fund is an international organisation dedicated to safeguarding architecture and heritage. It had an affiliate office in France that took part in numerous restoration projects…
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Esplanade des Invalides and Champ-de-Mars: a case study in misinformation
Sacking Paris, as foreign tourists visiting the French capital can see, is not the only activity of Paris City Council. It also has a passion for denying the facts, even though these can be…
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Back to L’Aquila (6). Duomo restoration work finally begins
In 1703, the L’Aquila earthquake almost completely destroyed the cathedral, which was rebuilt by the Roman architect Sebastiano Cipriani from 1711 onwards, only to be reopened in 1780, the…
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Back to L’Aquila (5). The rediscovered frescoes of Santa Maria della Misericordia
The destruction caused by earthquakes can sometimes be offset by the rediscovery of works that had remained hidden for centuries. This is the case in L’Aquila, notably in a small church that is…
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Back to L’Aquila (3). Il Museo Nazionale d’Abruzzo
Since its creation in 1951, the National Museum of Abruzzo has been housed in the Forte Spagnolo of L’Aquila, built in the 16th century. This impressive fortress, designed by the architect Pere…
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Back to L’Aquila (2). The church of Santa Maria del Suffragio
As was the case on a much larger scale in Sicily after the devastating earthquake of 1693, the 1703 seism in L’Aquila in Abruzzo was also the occasion for the construction of religious buildings…
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A French artist’s decor at Sant’Andrea al Quirinale
The church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, one of Bernini’s architectural masterpieces, is certainly one of the best known in Rome. But in this city of inexhaustible heritage, even the most famous…
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Back to L’Aquila (1), twelve years later
In July 2011, just over two years after the earthquake that struck the Abruzzo town of L’Aquila, we visited the restoration work underway. At the time, the city was partly off-limits, and the…
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Sculptures from the rood screen at Notre-Dame: obstruction from the body responsible for archaeological digs
We know that the salvage excavations at the transept crossing of Notre-Dame have found, as might be expected, some of the sculptures from the 13th-century rood screen destroyed in the 18th…
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The Drosnay church fire
It’s a tradition we could do without: as soon as a church in France burns down, the extremists go wild on social networks to denounce a supposed Islamist attack on the values of the West. But…
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The heritage damage caused by the Val-de-Grâce explosion
While we cannot forget the tragic human toll of the explosion that took place at the Val-de-Grâce on 21 June, with at least one dead, four seriously injured and around fifty more slightly injured,…
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Mr Vandal, do you accept the protection of the monument you are about to destroy?
The French system for protecting historic monuments, which used to be one of the best in the world, is severely seized up. In addition to the legislative regressions we have witnessed in recent…
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The liturgical refurbishment of Notre-Dame will calm the debate
The Archdiocese of Paris has just announced its plans for the redevelopment of Notre-Dame de Paris, which will be submitted to the CNPA (National Commission for Heritage and Architecture) on 13…
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The few words we’ll be writing about Carnac
The case was revealed by the "Sites & Monuments" association and made the front page of many newspapers and TV channels: work was carried out on a site in Carnac without following the INRAP…
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Threats to the heritage of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine
The under-protection of France’s heritage, particularly in Paris, the incomprehensible lack of "sites patrimoniaux remarquables" in the capital with the exception of those in the 7th…
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It is time to respect the Louvre Colonnade
A meeting was organized today at the Paris Centre City Hall by its mayor Ariel Weil to launch a reflection on the "Place du Louvre," an inappropriate term since this one, which is in front of the…
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Restoration of the Porte Dorée at the Château de Fontainebleau
What remains of the original decoration? The 16th-century frescoes that adorn the Porte Dorée of the Château de Fontainebleau are in a sorry state, victims of the passage of time, climatic…