Notre Dame Fire: France To Spend €220 Million To Restore 87 Cathedrals

As part of efforts launched in the wake of the Notre Dame fire, the French government announced an expanded program intended to restore and protect aging cathedrals across the country.

During a visit to a cathedral in Amiens, Minister of Culture Rima Abdul-Malak said France is continuing to shift its focus from preservation efforts that mainly focus on ensuring the personal safety of visitors to placing a greater emphasis on protecting the structures themselves. The April 2019 fire that devastated Notre Dame in Paris highlighted the vulnerability of such historic structures in France.

In a nation where tourism is a major economic engine, these ancient cathedrals are both important markers of cultural heritage as well as magnets to draw spending by visitors into local economies.

“Until 2019, it sounds crazy, but only the issue of personal safety was taken into account in the event of a fire,” Abdul-Malak said in an interview with French media. “Not that of heritage. We can therefore speak of a real revolution in approach.”

The Ministry of Culture has already spent more than €167 million in 2021 and 2022 to restore and preserve cathedrals, an amount that included €25 million for fire detection and remote monitoring, according to the Le Journal du Dimanche.

But currently, only 53 cathedrals have such upgraded security features. So Abdul-Malak intends to expand efforts by spending another €52 million in 2023 for restoring and protecting cathedrals, including €12 million for fire safety measures.

That will bring the total spent preserving 87 cathedrals to €220 million by the end of 2023. However, that doesn’t include the money being spent to rebuild Notre Dame in Paris.