The Sacré-Coeur, the most visited monument in Paris and a major place of world tourism, will be able to be classified as a historic monument.
The Ministry of Culture has validated as expected the registration of the Sacré-Coeur, the basilica of Montmartre in Paris and one of the high places of world tourism, with historical monuments, just like the adjoining square Louise Michel.
“This decision is taken in accordance with the favorable opinion issued on December 8 by the National Commission for Heritage and Architecture”, indicates the ministry in a press release and will be definitively ratified by the signature “in the coming days” of a arrested by Minister Rima Abdul Malak.
This classification is the culmination of a campaign started in 2011 by the City of Paris to protect its churches.
Bloody crush of the Commune
It puts an end to a very controversial political episode, because of the symbolic significance of the building which represents for many people on the left the repressive “moral order” at the origin of the bloody crushing of the Commune in 1871.
“The basilica is the subject of a contrasting historiography. But protecting a historic monument does not mean glorifying this or that aspect” of its history, says the ministry in its press release.
With eleven million visitors, the Sacré-Coeur, an immaculate neo-Romanesque Catholic basilica with Byzantine influences, is the most visited building in the French capital after Notre-Dame Cathedral, before the fire.
Built in 1877
The Sacré-Coeur was built from 1877 until 1923 on the Montmartre hill, after a competition and a national subscription.
The adjoining square Louise Michel, thought from the start but only realized in the 1920s, is “inseparable” from the history of the building, underlines the ministry which considers that it “stages” its “monumentalness, amplified by the whiteness of the stone”.
The classification as historical monuments will allow any work to be covered up to 40% by the Drac (Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs), against 20% previously, according to the City of Paris.