“This is a shameless disregard for popular culture!
Twenty-four hours after learning of the disappearance of the green ray from Strasbourg Cathedral, Maurice Rosart is not losing his temper.
It was in 1972 that this former surveyor was the first to discover this phenomenon which had hitherto been visible at the spring and autumn equinoxes.
“For four days of the year, the sun penetrated one of the stained glass windows of Strasbourg Cathedral through the foot of Judah, colored pale green.
The sun then turned into a green ray then going to hit the head of Christ on the pulpit, ”explains the 84-year-old Alsatian.
Well known to Strasbourg residents and tourists, the "green ray" attracted hundreds of visitors to the religious building at each equinox.
While the phenomenon was expected at 11:38 sharp this Sunday by nearly a thousand curious people, it did not appear.
“It was friends who warned me.
So I went to Strasbourg Cathedral to conduct my little investigation, ”says Maurice Rosart.
A calculation of Historic Monuments?
It was the steward of Notre-Dame de Strasbourg who solved the mystery of this enigma.
“He explained to me that work had recently been carried out to replace the stained glass window of Judah.
This one, until now, was transparent, allowing the sun to pass through”, annoys Maurice Rosart.
The octogenarian does not hesitate to see it as a kind of mercantile plot, even if it is probably only a “clumsiness”: “According to the intendant, it is a decision of the Historic Monuments.
I think they did it deliberately, because the green ray drew about a thousand people each time around noon.
However, at the same time, the astronomical clock of the cathedral comes alive, but, to attend this spectacle, you have to pay 3 euros.
A sum which could not be claimed from admirers of the green ray on the days of the equinox, who could at the same time attend free of charge the animation of the mechanism of the astronomical clock, just next door.
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