Mathieu Lours: "In the West, we are witnessing the return of the ruin of abandonment"

Mathieu Lours is a historian, specialist in 18th century religious architecture. He publishes Churches in ruins in the editions of Cerf.

LE FIGARO. - You say you have been passionate about ruins since childhood ... Funny subject!

Mathieu Lours. - I have a passion for ruins, whether ancient, Gothic or fortified castles. Ruin is not just a symbol of desolation. It is at the crossroads of the vestige and the relic, and for the churches, a ferment of spiritual rebirth. It is often incredibly beautiful, to the point of being inscribed in the collective memory and in the popular imagination. Some scenes from the Game of Thrones series were filmed in a ruined Scottish church. No need for explanations: the sets made the scene sacred, which was not religious but revolved around a battle plan. And when I entered Notre-Dame de Paris, a month after the fire, that I looked at the great organ, the daylight that pierced, the

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