Traditionalists opposing the use of six modern stained-glass windows in the restored Notre Dame de Paris have collected over 130,000 signatures to a petition presented to the French presidency.
The windows, due to be set in side chapels along the southern wall of the cathedral, would replace nineteenth-century windows that, the petition argues, were not damaged in its 2019 fire.
The petition, launched by La Tribune de l’Art website, also argues that President Emmanuel Macron was the driving force behind this modernisation of the Gothic building.
“Who gave the head of state the mandate to alter a cathedral that does not belong to him, but to everyone?” the petition asked.
“Emmanuel Macron wants to put the mark of the twenty-first century on Notre-Dame de Paris. A little modesty might be best. We will not be cruel enough to remind you that this mark already exists: fire.”
Macron said after the fire that he wanted the rebuilt cathedral, whose cornerstone was laid in 1163, to include some modern touches. That prompted a flurry of proposals from artists and architects, including a swimming pool on the cathedral roof and changing Biblical quotes projected on the interior walls.
These in turn provoked a backlash from preservationists, who insisted the cathedral be rebuilt exactly as it was. Macron slowly had to give ground and now the few modern touches will be in the new furniture for the altar and the congregation.
Modernisers’ protests that some iconic items such as the cathedral’s steeple or some gargoyles were added in a nineteenth-century renovation were ignored.
The cathedral’s exterior profile is being reproduced, with wooden roof beams and lead covering used rather than modern alternatives – though some said these worsened the fire.
The nineteenth-century stained-glass windows in question are sober decorations, unlike the colourful medieval glass the cathedral is famous for. Supporters say they are as classified historical monuments like the whole cathedral.
The petition’s initiator, journalist and art historian Didier Rykner, said that between 7,000 and 8,000 signatures came from abroad.
“I’ve been questioned a lot by the international media, but not all foreigners understood that the petition was open to them. However, Notre-Dame belongs to the heritage of all humanity.”
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