Notre Dame: Save The Gargoyles!
The archbishop of Paris is on a $120 million fundraising drive to save the crumbling gargoyles and gothic arches of Notre Dame cathedral. Each year up to 14 million people visit the 12th-century Paris landmark on an island in the Seine river. Building began about 850 years ago, but pollution and the passing of time have chipped off large chunks of stone. “If we don’t do these restoration works, we’ll risk seeing parts of the exterior structure begin to fall. This is a very serious risk,†said Michel Picaud, president of the Friends of Notre Dame charity set up by the archbishop. Church officials, who have created what they are calling a “stone cemetery†from fallen masonry, say
the cathedral remains safe to visit. Entry is free and the French state, which owns the building, devotes $2.2. million a year to repairs. But that is not enough to embark on major restoration works, the last of which were carried out during the 1800s, officials at the cathedral and charity said.
