CNA Staff, Jun 4, 2024 / 06:00 am
The danger that has been threatening France’s religious heritage for decades is becoming a matter of concern to the authorities and the general public.
As experts estimate that the country loses a religious building every 15 days, the country’s leading historical preservation nonprofit “Fondation du Patrimoine” (“Patrimony Foundation”) has launched a campaign aimed at restoring a thousand buildings, the vast majority of which are Catholic, in rural areas of the country.
This is the first time that the nonprofit organization, founded in 1996 to promote French heritage, has launched such a major campaign to raise awareness and preserve religious monuments. As part of the campaign, the foundation released a list of the first 100 sites to benefit from renovation funding.
The grants are aimed primarily at religious buildings in municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants in mainland France and fewer than 20,000 inhabitants in the French overseas territories, which cannot be protected by the French state as historical monuments.