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Threatened by cracks, the Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica in Lyon needs 5 million euros

2023-03-01T18:04:44.008Z


The Fourvière Foundation, which manages the site located in the 5th arrondissement of Lyon, has opened a fundraiser in partnership with the Heritage Foundation to attract more than its usual patrons.


Le Figaro Lyon

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Open to the four winds on the rocky peak of Fourvière overlooking Lyon, the eponymous basilica suffered from a century and a half of bad weather.

A fundraising campaign was launched at the beginning of the year in order to raise the 5 million euros needed to resolve the structural disorders observed in three of the four outer towers.

And there is urgency, because the water that seeps into the cracks of the building freezes in winter, causing the white stones to explode.

"The sooner we act, the more secure we are and the less we pay

," says Magaly Chatain, general delegate of the Fourvière Foundation, owner of the site.

On the financial side, the Foundation already has 640,000 euros thanks to patrons such as Alain Mérieux (BioMérieux), the first local fortune very invested in Fourvière, or Olivier Ginon (GL Events).

The city of Lyon will not pot this time.

It has already given one million euros in 2019 for the “new momentum” project, launched in 2016, to strengthen the attractiveness of the site which receives 2.5 million visitors each year.

With the figurehead of the new building in the Carré Fourvière overlooked by an incredible glass roof.

The municipality estimates that it must already manage an important religious heritage: “i.e. almost 1.3 million euros devolved each year by the city in respect of historical monuments, half of which consist of churches – the 27 dating from before 1905 ".

No controversy with the environmental municipality

The heritage assistant of the ecologist executive, Sylvain Godinot, specifies that the municipality is also investing 2.3 million euros in the Rosary gardens within the framework of the Unesco convention.

And to recall the 500,000 euros allocated over four years to the maintenance of the esplanade de Fourvière.

Located on the right-of-way of the site belonging to the foundation, it nevertheless remains one of the most touristic points of Lyon for the view it offers over the city.

No controversy therefore between the two parties, who say they are acting on good terms, despite the title of a recent article in Le

Parisien

 suggesting the opposite.

Work will be launched as the coffers fill up.

They must also allow the ecological and digital transition of Fourvière and allow its cultural development.

The interior of the chapel, seven centuries earlier than the building built on the plans of Pierre Bossan between 1872 and 1896, will also be renovated.

An expensive project, especially in scaffolding since the whole site is classified, but which will allow the passage to continue the work started 150 years ago, by completing certain sculptures interrupted for lack of money.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-03-01

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