Notre Dame rejects visitor charge that would fund heritage 'preservation plan'

Weeks before its grand reopening after a devastating fire, Notre Dame has become embroiled in an escalating row over whether to charge visitors a fee to enter the 12th-century gothic masterpiece.

- Jon Henley

France's culture minister, Rachida Dati, proposed this week that tourists visiting the Paris cathedral, known as "the soul of France" and one of the world's great architectural treasures, should pay a €5 entrance fee to help preserve the country's churches.

But while visitors to the most notable cathedrals in neighbouring countries, including Spain, Italy and Britain, routinely pay entry, France's Catholic church is fiercely opposed to the idea, and experts have warned it could even be illegal.

Notre Dame is due to reopen on 7 December after narrowly escaping total destruction in April 2019, when flames tore through its wooden rafters and lead roof, toppling its monumental spire and prompting a huge five-year restoration project.

President Emmanuel Macron said at the time that the cathedral, visited by 12-14 million people a year before the fire, was "our history, our literature, our collective imagination, the place where we have lived all our great moments, our wars and our liberations. It is the epicentre of our life."