2024-02-12 18:54:00
The state of Notre-Dame de Tournai Cathedral worries certain associations. The cause: water infiltration caused major damage to the building, which is nevertheless listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
Chantal knows the cathedral like the back of her hand. This volunteer who welcomes visitors is worried regarding traces of humidity on the walls. Water clearly coming from the ceiling. “It makes me sad“, she sums up, disappointed.
For several days, workers have been protecting the electrical boxes in the area as a precaution. The heritage defense association “Communauté Historia” looked into the matter. She was alerted by parishioners. According to the president of the association, the first thing to do is to “patch holes in the roof“.
Expensive work, but necessary to avoid any disaster in the future. The site is recognized as a world heritage site, it is time to act, believes Virgil Declercq: “There is a risk of infiltration which can damage the columns and masonry. But we also have a huge hole in the roof which means that there is significant infiltration at that level..” The president of the association goes even further: “We have wooden structural supports which are rotting and which raise questions regarding the stability of the building.“
The cathedral is the property of the province of Hainaut. For 20 years, very large-scale works have been carried out and financed by the Walloon region. The part in question here should be renovated. We are talking regarding budgets close to 30 million euros… but which have not yet been found.
Accused of laxity in this matter, the province defends itself: “We intervene regularly for small repairs and we have large files monitored annually, precisely for a concrete restoration of this cathedral.“, says François Baton, architect for the province.
The province has explained that it wants to make this issue a priority. She will first try to understand the precise cause of these infiltrations.
Tournai Notre-Dame Cathedral
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