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Chartres disfigured

Plans for modern monstrosity in venerable cathedral’s forecourt

MORE BAD NEWS from Chartres. Fresh from the completion of a controversial and much criticised renovation of the ancient cathedral’s interior, le Salon Beige reports the city has unveiled plans to tear up the parvis in front of the cathedral and replace it with a modernist “interpretation centre”.

The original parvis (or forecourt) was much smaller than the one we know today. Between 1866 and 1905 the majority of the block of buildings in front of the cathedral, including most of the old Hôtel-Dieu, were demolished to give a wider view of the cathedral’s west façade and its “Royal Portals”.

After the war various plans to tart the place up were made and variously foundered — from a modest alignment of trees in the 1970s to Patrick Berger’s plan for an International Medieval Centre. More recently the gravelly space was unsuccessfully “improved” by the addition of boxes of shrubbery placed in a formation that, jarringly, fails to align with the portals of the cathedral.

The proposed “interpretation centre” designed by Michel Cantal-Dupart — at a projected cost of €23.5 million — destroys the gentle ascent to the cathedral and indeed reverses it. At a projected cost of €23.5 million, a giant slab juts apart as if displaced by an earthquake. The paying tourist is invited down into its infernal belly while others prat about on the slab’s upwardly angled roof, ideal for gawking at the newly commodified beauty of this medieval cathedral. It is practically designed for Instagramming, rather than reflection and contemplation.

As you would imagine, reaction has been strong. Michel Janva, writing at le Salon Beige, says the project “plans to imprison the cathedral” and “will disappoint not only pilgrims on their arrival, but also inhabitants and tourists”.

In the Tribune de l’Art, Didier Rykner is damning: “All this is purely and simply grotesque.” The sides of the centre, he points out, will be glazed to allow in natural light, but this will both interfere with multimedia displays and be bad for the conservation of fragile works of art. “This architecture, which looks vaguely like that of a parking lot, is frighteningly mediocre, and this in front of one of the most beautiful cathedrals of the world.”

Rykner attributes blame for the “megalomaniac and hollow project, expensive and stupid” at the doors of the mayor of Chartres, Jean-Pierre Gorges, who he argues has allowed much of the rest of the city’s artistic and architectural heritage to go to rot while devoting resources to this pharaonic endeavour.

Having walked from Paris to Chartres myself I can imagine how much this proposal will injure the experience for pilgrims. After three days on the road, to arrive at Chartres, stand in the parvis, and gaze up at this work of beauty, devotion, and love for the Blessed Virgin is a profound experience. If constructed, this plan would deprive at least a generation or two from having this experience. (But only a generation or two, for it is simply unimaginable to think this building will not be demolished in the fullness of time.)

Chartres is part of the patrimony of all Europe and one of the most important sites in the whole world. For it to be reduced to the plaything of some momentary mayor is a crime. With any luck, the good citizens of Chartres, of France, and of the world will put a stop to this monstrosity.

Above: A photo by Didier Rykner of the parvis in its current state compared to a projected image of the proposal.

Below: Further projections of the interpretation centre.

Published at 10:45 am on Wednesday 23 January 2019. Categories: Architecture Church France Tags: , , .
Comments

Looks like a parking garage!

— Nancy Dupuis 24 Jan 2019 12:54 am

I am absolutely horrified at the sight of this. The Cathedral at Chartres had such a strong impression on me on my first ever trip to Europe. To ruin the traditional urban integrity around the Cathedral is unthinkable. This looks like a bad Urban Renewal scheme from the 1960s. There is no place for such a thing in the 21st Century.

— Mason Roberts 25 Jan 2019 7:29 pm

If you read through their mission statements, the explicit goal is to minimize the sacral aspect of the site, and amplify the “tourist” attraction value.

There’s ZERO reason why they could not do here what they did with the Scavi in Saint Peter’s.

This is another Louvre-like desecration, another St. Jacques of Abbeville, another Penn Station…

— Enzo Selvaggi 25 Jan 2019 7:42 pm

There should be a law against cultural barbarians.Oliver Cromwell did similar things in 1650 England.

— BERNARD FERRE 25 Jan 2019 10:43 pm

I suspect I’m reading a parody prepared for The Onion. Surely no one in his or her right mind, with any sense of tradition, an informed aesthetic, or dare, I say it, love of God, would consider such a monstrosity.

— RWordplay 25 Jan 2019 10:51 pm

Could anyone start an online petition to stop this stupidity from defacing Chartres?

— Maurice Almadrones 26 Jan 2019 4:12 am

A obstruction of beauty and an embarrassment to the beauty of the city and cathedral. Put it somewhere else.

— Ellen Andre 26 Jan 2019 10:12 pm

Il you are ont convinced by thé JP GORGES s’ project. Do write Him : votreville@agglo-ville.chartres.fr.

— Azincourt 29 Jan 2019 5:55 pm

It’s hard to understand why the Mayor of Chartres, which I assume derives much of its income from visitors drawn by the cathedral, would want to desecrate the main attraction with this pathetically banal unnecessary and unwanted interpretation centre.

Clearly an international outcry must be organised, but how and by whom?

— Malcolm Millais 6 Feb 2019 10:53 am

If you are not convinced by this project, you can also sign the online petition there :

https://www.change.org/p/les-chartrains-contre-le-projet-du-clo%C3%AEtre-notre-dame-chartres

Thanks in advance.

— François-Xavier C. 6 Feb 2019 12:37 pm

Thanks for this interesting article. Maybe it would be better to build the centre completely subterranean. A good example of blending old and new is in my opinion the Musée Gallo-Romain (Lugdunum) in Lyon, it is directly adjacent to the Amphithéâtre but is inconspicuous and does not destroy the “Genius loci”. Maybe Chartres should learn from Lyon …

— J. Hassel 15 Feb 2019 6:03 pm
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