Posted Sep 30, 2022 5:30 PM
Rue Royale, the “Greek temple of Paris” will regain its luster. No less than twenty stonemasons and sculptors are hard at work replacing and carving the monumental blocks of stone that form the facade of the famous Madeleine church. Unleaded, whitewashed, rid of their cement slag, the fifteen columns, the capital and the staircase are undergoing a major rejuvenation treatment. “It’s both Herculean and expert work,” says Karen Taïeb, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of heritage. Still hidden by an advertising tarpaulin, the result of the work will be unveiled in June.
With the Madeleine, the city of Paris will have completed one of the most imposing projects of its “church plan”, launched under the first term of Anne Hidalgo. Between 2015 and 2022, 170 million euros will have been spent in an attempt to restore the municipal religious heritage (96 buildings), which is unevenly maintained. What the city hopes for, to calm the ardor of the right, which had, in 2019, accused it of neglecting its churches. “There is always something to do. We are certainly not doing enough, but we are trying to deal with the most urgent, especially since we have to act according to our financial constraints,” says Karen Taiëb.
8 million revenue
At La Madeleine, the schedule was not disrupted by supply difficulties and the estimate did not swell under the weight of inflation. 10 million euros of work will have been necessary to clean up the damage (cracks, dirt) caused by pollution, bad weather, and some hazardous past renovations. Work began in 2021, but several experiments were carried out between 2017 and 2019 to choose the right restoration technique.
La Madeleine was not as complex to refresh as its neighbor La Trinité and ten years of construction. Its influence is without common measure with that of Notre-Dame. But it is an emblematic church and… ideally placed. The City of Paris did not hesitate to affix to it, during the works, a large-scale advertising banner which generated revenue of 8 million euros.
The Sacred Heart at the Historical Monuments
“Not all buildings are suitable for this. La Trinité and Saint-Pierre de Montrouge have one, but neither Saint-Louis nor Saint-Joseph had a tarpaulin during their restoration”, tempers Karen Taïeb. The city has other resources and is betting in particular on patronage, which saved the chandeliers of the Madeleine in 2020 and embellished Notre-Dame d’Auteuil.
Because Paris is not done with its churches. A dozen projects are underway (Saint-Sulpice, Saint-Eustache, etc.), to which must be added restoration work on works of art located in the buildings. Others will start. In a few days, Karen Taiëb will present to the Council of Paris a deliberation aimed at requesting the classification of the Sacré-Coeur basilica as a Historic Monument. A level of protection – and additional funding – for the building, which was simply “registered” with the Monuments. “For the moment, we have not scheduled any work. This registration has above all a dimension of heritage recognition”, insists Karen Taïeb.
The Basilica will be the 67th listed Parisian monument. But the subject is less consensual than it seems, because of the supposed links between the history of the Sacred Heart and that of the Commune, which divide the Parisian political class. Last year, environmentalists stepped up to the plate and Karen Taïeb then chose to postpone the classification procedure after the commemoration of 150 years of the Commune.
