{"id":516642,"date":"2026-04-06T22:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/516642\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T22:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:51:09","slug":"architectural-jewel-or-wart-new-cathedral-porch-divides-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/516642\/","title":{"rendered":"Architectural jewel or \u2018wart\u2019? New cathedral porch divides France"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 450-tonne concrete gallery added to the cathedral in Angers in western France is designed to be a \u201charmonious dialogue\u201d between the Middle Ages and the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Critics, however, denounce it as a \u201cwart\u201d on the face of an edifice that is almost 1,000 years old.<\/p>\n

The \u201cquarrel of the ancients and the moderns\u201d, as it has been described by Ouest-France, the regional daily, is raging before the inauguration of the 21m-long gallery that has been built to protect the western portal of Saint-Maurice Cathedral.<\/p>\n

Catherine P\u00e9gard, the culture minister, is due to open the \u20ac5.5 million construction on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Designed by Kengo\u00a0Kuma<\/a>, the Japanese architect responsible for Tokyo\u2019s Olympic stadium, the structure is intended to preserve multicoloured sculptures dating from the 12th\u00a0and 17th\u00a0centuries.<\/p>\n

The medieval relics, principally in blue, red and yellow with ochre that was added in the 1600s, were discovered when the cathedral was cleaned in 2009. Val\u00e9rie Gaudard, who is in charge of historic monuments at the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, told Lib\u00e9ration newspaper that a polychromatic sculpture of this sort needed protection from the elements. \u201cA little like a rug left in the sun, it loses its colour,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A porch covered the sculptures for centuries, but it was damaged by lightning in 1617 and pulled down in 1807. In 2020, Kuma was picked to replace it, although not with an exact replica that would have been little more than a \u201cpastiche\u201d, according to Christine Blanchet, an art historian.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur challenge was to create a harmonious dialogue between a contemporary creation whilst preserving Middle Age architectural heritage,\u201d Kuma said on his website.<\/p>\n

\"Architect Kengo Kuma, the architect Simone Padovani\/Getty Images for Qatar Creates<\/p>\n

\"CollageThe old facade, left, was covered by a porch until 1807. An illustration of the new porch, right, whjch aims to protect medieval relics<\/p>\n

He clearly believes he has succeeded, saying that his \u201con-site concrete precasting process \u2026 weaves a thread between past and present, lending the building a quiet contemporaneity rooted in the long continuum of architectural history\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Ouest-France likened the gallery to a \u201creinforced concrete UFO\u201d. It said locals were unsure whether it was an \u201carchitectural jewel or a wart\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOpinions vary between perplexity, admiration and, more often, disapproval\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tribune Chr\u00e9tienne, a right-wing Catholic website, described it as an \u201carchitectural massacre\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

The diocese of Angers defended the design, saying the cathedral had \u201calways undergone improvements and expansions, notably in the 12th, 13th, 16th and 19th centuries\u201d. It said Kuma\u2019s structure was part of this \u201cperpetual movement\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gaudard said critics were missing the point. \u201cIts primary function is not to look pretty. Above all, it has a technical function as a climatic buffer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 450-tonne concrete gallery added to the cathedral in Angers in western France is designed to be a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-516642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}