Emmanuel Macron‘s culture minister insists she is still pushing for tourists to be charged to visit the newly reopened Notre Dame, despite pushback from Paris’ archdiocese.
Speaking during a trip to Dijon in eastern France on Thursday, Minister of Culture Rachida Dati said: “I still hope to convince the diocese.”
She added that a “€5 (£4.19) fee would allow us to raise €75 to 100 million (£62m to £83m) each year”, a sum required to restore the country’s religious treasures, as per French news outlet Le Figaro.
Dati, a right-wing conservative who was appointed by Macron in January 2024, said about “4,000 religious buildings are at risk”, as she reaffirmed her belief that visitors to important sites should contribute to paying for their upkeep.
In an interview with Le Figaro, published online in October, Dati had claimed that “charging admission to Notre-Dame would save all the churches in France”.
All of the money raised would be devoted to “a major plan to safeguard France’s religious heritage”, she said at the time, in a proposal previously backed by the French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.
Dati also wants to modulate the pricing of national monuments and museums from 2026, saying that “visitors from outside the EU” could pay “more” than French visitors to “finance the renovation of our national heritage”.
France’s Catholic church, has strongly resisted the move, insisting such buildings should be free for both worshippers and tourists, though some cathedrals do have entry fees for certain areas like bell towers, crypts and treasuries, as per The Guardian.
The diocese of Notre Dame said in a previous statement that Churches and cathedrals need to be able to “welcome all, unconditionally – thus necessarily free of charge – regardless of religion, belief, opinions and financial means”, the outlet reported.
It also said Notre Dame’s design would mean setting up a system that distinguished between tourists and people coming to the cathedral for private prayer would prove to be “extremely complicated in terms of its practicalities”.
The archdiocese added that it would be open to funding through “other schemes that do not consist of taxing visitors to the cathedral”, but a €5 fee for all visitors would “inevitably lead to people declining to visit a building that by its nature should be wide open to all”.
The cathedral, which has been on the site since the 11th century, was forced to close in April 2019 after a fire ripped through the building, causing serious damage and almost destroying it. Firefighters were able to save the main structure of the building, including the bell tower and rose windows.
President Macron vowed to see the church restored within five years. By September 2021, donors had contributed over €840 million (£704) to the rebuilding effort, and it was reopened with a major event attended by world leaders on December 7.
Speaking at the event, Macron said entry to the cathedral should remain “free of charge”, despite the stance of his culture minister.
Hundreds of churches across France require urgent restoration and face the risk of partial collapse or demolition.
Among the more notable sites are Saint-Sulpice in Paris, Notre-Dame de l’Épine in Marne, and the Saint-Denis Basilica in Saint-Denis.
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