Strasbourg Cathedral Tagged

Case information
Incident date
Country
France
Place
Strasbourg
Categories
  • Social Hostility / Intolerance
Attack Against
  • Faith
Perpetrator / Motive Indicators
  • Anti-Religion or Humanism Groups
  • Private
Hate Crime & Violent Incidents
  • Vandalism (all)
  • Vandalism of Church
Place of Incident
  • Church
Bias Indicators
  • Comments/Written Statements/Gestures/Graffiti
  • Significance of Property/Structure/Location to religious community
Reported to Police
  • Yes
Response of Local Authorities
  • Investigated
Image credit: Twitter page of Alain Fontanel, Strasbourg Deputy Mayor

A facade and the double door of Strasbourg Cathedral were tagged during the night between February 20th and 21st with the anarchist message “Neither god nor master” ("Ni Dieu, Ni Maître").

A specialized cleaning company was hired by the city to erase the two tags. The usual method of cleaning with blasts of water would not be used because the water would seep into the stone and freeze, which could seriously damage the block of sandstone. Therefore, the company had to sandblast the facade.

The Regional Director for Cultural Affairs initiated a complaint and investigation saying, "Any degradation of a listed historical monument will not go unpunished."

The archpriest of the cathedral noted "This is the first time this kind of tag has been done on the cathedral, it's a stupid and nasty provocation."

Sources