After the fire at Notre Dame there was some criticism about the incredible speed that people came together to pay for it’s repair or in some cases whether it should be repaired. What is has really shown though is the perilous state of historic structures not just in France but around the world. Even the famous Notre Dame was struggling to get money before the fire with the bill for upkeep reaching €150,000,000. That’s what happens when 13,000,000 visitors happen a year.
But what about the less known heritage buildings in the world. Who looks after them? UNESCO is supposed to but it doesn’t have enough money and it also has a large amount of natural sites to look after as well as human made ones.
So why not a give a little site for historic buildings? After all, these are everybody’s heritage and if the governments of the world don’t feel the upkeep of these buildings is important then we can still act individually.
And how many of these buildings do we know the history of. Katherine Mansfield was widely read around the world yet how many people know her house is being restored? Perhaps these abandoned cabins in Elkmont would inspire people or the Crenshaw house. Maybe an ancient stone church high in the Pyrennes would capture enough imagination to repair it’s foundations, or perhaps not.
