notre dame basilica and then there was light

Soon thereafter, it was backed by Michel Aupetit, the Archbishop of Paris, who in June praised the plan for bringing the “cathedral into the 21st century while preserving its own identity in the spirit of the Christian tradition.” (Aupetit selected Drouin to design the space.) The proposal was presented by Father Gilles Drouin in May during an online conference for the general secretariat of Catholic education in France. Photo ©C2RMF/Alexis Komenda, courtesy of Friends of Notre Dame. Rope technicians working to remove Notre Dame scaffolding in June 2020. So there are plans to project on certain words and expressions in Mandarin, French or Spanish, and English.” Images and sculptures and paintings count but so do words. “Foreign visitors see signs and magnificent paintings but don’t understand a thing.

“This trail going from North to South from the shadow to the light will depict the major moments of the Bible to explain in the most intelligible to common mortals, whether Chinese or Swedish, what it all means,” Rousselot told the Telegraph.

The idea, said Christian Rousselot, the director-general of the Notre-Dame Foundation, is to “provide the keys to half the planet that doesn’t know what a cathedral is.” Meanwhile, altars, classical sculptures, and confessional boxes would be replaced with modern murals and sound and light installations meant to take visitors “from the darkness to the light.”

The last stop on the tour would have a “strong environmental emphasis,” according to the plan. Īccording to a report from the Daily Telegraph, the proposed changes would see the creation of a “discovery trail” inside the medieval building, where the story of the Bible would be told in different languages across a series of chapels, each dedicated to a different international culture. A new tourist-centric proposal to renovate the interior of the Notre-Dame Cathedral has rankled some in France, who say the plan would “Disneyify” the gothic structure, which was ravaged by a fire in 2019.

Notre dame basilica and then there was light