Resident after the destruction: “Like Notre-Dame”

 

Georgina Harris/TT

 

Published 17.12

        

        The Limoges City Hall was one of the buildings severely damaged by fire on Saturday evening.                   Photo: Pascal Lachenaud/AFP/TT

Two landmarks—the City Hall in Limoges and the tourist office in Lyon—were set on fire during this weekend’s protests in France.

“It was like witnessing the Notre-Dame fire all over again, except this time it was in our own city,” Limoges resident Françoise Faurie told Reuters.

The City Hall in Limoges, in central France, survived two world wars but could not withstand the damage inflicted this weekend, which followed nationwide protests across France. Completed in 1883, the building is designated as a site of cultural and historical significance. Maurice Barate, the Prefect of Limoges (a role roughly equivalent to a regional governor), described the damage caused by the fire as a “cultural heritage disaster.”

“The roof collapsed onto the floors below, and by that point, two-thirds of the exterior was already gone,” Maurice Barate told AFP on Sunday.

Watching the building’s tower and spire burn and collapse brought back memories of the 2019 fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris—where the iconic spire also collapsed—Françoise Faurie told Reuters.

“My heart broke. There is no reason to target something like this,” he said, referring to the destruction of the City Hall.

“Impossible to stop”

Local authorities have identified a group of young, masked individuals who overpowered the police, stormed the building, and subsequently set it on fire. Mayor Guillaume Guérin tells *Le Figaro* that the town hall “fell” within the span of ten minutes. He blames “professional urban guerrillas” for the incident, stating that the police force on-site “could in no way stop them.”

“The right to demonstrate in France is sacred, but vandalism is a criminal offense,” says Guérin, calling for state intervention to resolve the crime.

19th-century pavilion burned

One of the pavilions in the Place Bellecour square in central Lyon—another site of cultural and historical significance—was largely destroyed.

Lyon’s mayor, Grégory Doucet, told AFP that “the chaos that gripped the city for several hours was abhorrent.”

The original military pavilion, dating back to 1852, long served as a guard post. Today, it functions as a tourist office. The building was restored in 1945 and underwent renovation in 2015.

The full extent of the material damage caused by the weekend’s looting and vandalism remains unclear, but according to the French government, at least 3,000 businesses have been affected.