Even though it was one of France’s most iconic sites, Notre Dame cathedral suffered years of neglect and struggled to find the millions it needed for urgent renovations before it was ravaged by fire. But France is replete with tens of thousands of other historic monuments that are at risk. AdvertisingThe list of disasters or near disasters by fire at the country’s historic monuments, in the last 25 years, is long — and includes notably the flames that engulfed the 17th-century parliament building in Brittany in 1994. It spends roughly $360 million a year on these historic monuments, known in France as the patrimony, or patrimoine, barely a 10th of the Culture Ministry budget, and down 15 percent between 2010 and 2018. “I’ve been fighting for years to say, we’ve got to protect this heritage,” Bern said in an interview.

Source: Indian Express April 21, 2019 07:52 UTC