In France, the inscription of the Sacré-Coeur as a historical monument still divides
The Sacré-Coeur basilica dominates Paris from the Butte Montmartre, in the 18th arrondissement CC / Sebastian Bergmann
Text by: Lou Roméo Follow
7 min
While the Paris Commune is preparing to celebrate its 150th anniversary next March, the regional directorate of cultural affairs (DRAC) of Ile-de-France and the City of Paris have announced the upcoming inscription of the Sacré-Coeur in the historical monuments.
A decision that is controversial, since the basilica still symbolizes for many the revenge taken by the counter-revolutionaries on the people in search of popular sovereignty and social justice.
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A "
bad reading of history
" finally fixed?
Roselyne Bachelot, the Minister of Culture, welcomed in the pages of the
Parisian
the inscription of the Sacred Heart in the heritage.
When the classification procedure is completed, scheduled for 2021, it will be protected and supported by the State.
It will then join the 45,500 buildings registered or classified in France as historical monuments.
But the decision is controversial.
Several petitions have been published to protest against this choice of the
regional directorate of cultural affairs
(DRAC), with the agreement of the City of Paris.
The Sacred Heart is indeed for many a counter-revolutionary symbol.
Built shortly after the bloody end of the Paris Commune, the last popular and self-managed insurrection of the 19th century, it was said to have been erected to “
atone for the crimes
” of revolutionaries.
An erroneous interpretation of history, according to Laurent Roturier, the president of the Drac d'Ile-de-France.
“
The wish at the origin of the construction of the Sacred Heart was formulated at the end of the year 1870
,” he recalls.
Or several months before the Paris Commune burst.
This classification decision seeks to unite.
It should not be taken as a judgment
.
"
A basilica to “
expiate revolutions since 1789
”
Éric Fournier, lecturer in history at the University of Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and at the Center d'histoire du XIXe siècle, however qualifies this analysis, also carried by Roselyne Bachelot.
“
The wish to build the Sacred Heart was certainly launched a few months before the outbreak of the Paris Commune,”
he admits.
But this sanctuary was designed from the start to expiate the revolutions that have taken place in France since 1789, considered responsible for the defeat of France against Prussia in 1870. It symbolizes the revenge of the notable monarchists after a century of revolutions and people's incursions into the political arena
.
"
For the historian, the Sacred Heart has thus been associated from its construction with the repression of the Municipality and the Counter-Revolution.
The erection of the monument was indeed decided by the government of the Moral Order, one of the most reactionary regimes known to France.
With a monarchist majority, its members seek to reintroduce religion in a secularized and popular Paris.
A counter-revolutionary symbol since its creation
“
In the 19th century, no one was mistaken about what the Sacred Heart represents
,” continues Éric Fournier.
The place chosen to erect the building is symbolic: the Butte Montmartre saw the outbreak of the Commune on March 18, 1871, following the murder of two generals.
The highest point in Paris is also one of the venues for “Sanglante Week”.
Between May 21 and 28, 1871, 8,000 to 15,000 Communards were massacred by the troops of the elected government, which took refuge in Versailles.
A
performance
by the artist
Ernest Pignon-Ernest
was also organized on the steps leading to the Sacré-Coeur during the centenary of the Commune, in 1971, to recall this massacre of civilians, the deadliest of the 19th century.
Its scale then marks the end of the labor movement in France and Europe for several years.
The very choice of devotion to the “Sacred Heart” is political: it refers to a cult rendered by Louis XVI during the Revolution, in order to be re-established on the throne as a monarch by divine right.
The basilica is therefore immediately associated with an anti-republican and ultra-Catholic ideology.
“
In addition
, adds Éric Fournier, s n
the trauma left by the Municipality among the French elites, the building would probably not have been built.
It was then for the government to reprint its mark in a city of Paris which had escaped it for nearly two months, between March and May 1871.
”The Sacré-Coeur therefore divided from the laying of its first stone in 1874 The Council of Paris, seat of the Socialists and the Radicals in the capital, tries for its part to block the construction on several occasions, without success.
A memorial opposition that endures
The conflict around the building still continues today, opposing memories.
Les Amies et Amis de la Commune de Paris is the author of one of the
petitions
demanding that the classification procedure be stopped.
For this
association
, founded in 1882 by the Communards returning from exile, the inscription of the Sacré-Coeur in the heritage is a provocation, when the traces of the Commune are often erased from Parisian memory.
"
The Sacred Heart is listed as a heritage, while the Municipality still does not have a museum in Paris,
" protested Françoise Bazire, its secretary general.
Despite the association's repeated requests, the objects linked to this revolutionary period, to social and secular measures (separation of Church and State, self-management of companies, moratorium on rents, mixed and secular school, among others ...), are scattered between Saint-Denis and Montreuil, Parisian suburban towns anchored politically on the left since 1945.
The association has also been claiming in vain for several years that a metro station - why not that of Belleville, one of the suburbs at the center of the insurrection - bears the mention "
Commune de Paris - 1871
".
“
There are two weights, two measures
, accuses Françoise Bazire.
The Council of Paris and the town hall of Belleville agree.
But the RATP is blocking.
Everything is done to deny the memory of the Communards.
"
Reconcile memories
?
The DRAC of Ile de France, however, defends itself against any taking action: "
We protect in the same whole the basilica and the square Louise Michel [named after one of the most emblematic figures of the Paris Commune],"
Laurent recalls. Commoner.
Heritage seeks to reconcile memories for future generations.
According to him, the late classification of the Sacred Heart is explained by this conflicting memory, but also by a contempt that has long weighed on the architecture of the nineteenth century.
The very good condition of the building did not require urgent care either.
But how to “
reconcile
” Communards and Versaillais, libertarian socialist ideals and reactionary ultra-Catholicism?
For Françoise Bazire and Éric Fournier, this is not possible.
“
We are in the idea of a smooth history, rewritten for consensus, sighs Eric Fournier.
But beyond the national novel, the story is not linear.
Apart from dedicating a museum of Paris, it doesn't make much sense to bring together Louise Michel and the Sacré-Cœur
.
The monument is the most visited in Paris, after the Notre-Dame cathedral.
It receives an average of 10 million visitors each year.
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