Chartres Cathedral: Scandalous Makeover?
In 2009, amid a rising wave of other refurbishments of medieval buildings, the French Ministry of Culture embarked on a drastic, $18.5 million overhaul of the eight-hundred-year-old cathedral in Chartres, France. Though little is specifically known about the church’s original appearance—despite small traces of pigment at many points throughout the interior stonework—the project’s leaders, apparently with the full support of the French state, have set out to do no less than repaint the entire interior in bright whites and garish colors that are intended to return the sanctuary to its medieval state. This sweeping program to “reclaim†Chartres from its allegedly anachronistic gloom is supposed to be completed in 2017. Many people find the project scandalous.
