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Struggling to raise funds for the restoration of his cathedral\u2019s antique organ, a priest from St.-Flour, a small town in France\u2019s heartland, came up with a creative solution. He turned one of the bell towers into a curing workshop where farmers could hang their hams to dry.<\/p>\n
For nearly two years, after being blessed by a local bishop<\/a>, pork legs swayed in peace in the dry air of the cathedral\u2019s north tower, bringing in much-needed funds and delighting charcuterie lovers. Then an inspector for the organization that oversees France\u2019s architectural heritage stepped in.<\/p>\n After noticing a grease stain on the floor of the bell tower, as well as other infractions, the inspector ordered that the hams be taken down. They were a fire hazard, he said in a report in December 2023, according to cathedral officials. When the cathedral refused to remove the hams, the dispute escalated all the way to the country\u2019s minister of culture, Rachida Dati<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The battle over the St.-Flour hams was widely derided as an example of how overzealous officials can quash innovative local initiatives. It also spoke to a larger issue that aging churches across France have been grappling with as they face costly reparations: Who is going to pay to maintain the country\u2019s vast religious heritage?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After the French Revolution, church properties were seized by the state, which eventually took responsibility for overseeing most of them. But the central government and local municipalities have struggled to fund the maintenance of the country\u2019s cathedrals and churches.<\/p>\n The restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, which was ravaged by a devastating fire<\/a> in 2019, was funded by about $900 million in donations. But religious buildings in the rest of the country have been largely left to fend for themselves.<\/p>\n Across France, an estimated 15,000 religious buildings out of 45,000 are classified as historical monuments, according to the Culture Ministry. More than 2,300 of them are in poor condition, and 363 are considered endangered, the ministry said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe situation is alarming,\u201d said Hadrien Lacoste, the vice president of the Religious Heritage Observatory, an independent nonprofit group. \u201cThere\u2019s a drop in religious practice,\u201d he added, \u201cand there\u2019s a drop in demographics in rural areas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Despite a decline in church attendance<\/a>, towns like St.-Flour, which has a population of about 6,400, see their cathedrals and churches as defining elements of their identities and feel a strong need to maintain them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve realized that each of our churches is a little Notre-Dame, that the village without the church is like Paris without Notre-Dame,\u201d said Mathieu Lours, a French historian who specializes in religious architecture.<\/p>\n In France \u2014 as has been the case elsewhere in Europe \u2014 decaying churches are often transformed<\/a> into gyms, restaurants, hotels or housing.<\/p>\n In St.-Flour, a renaissance church adjacent to the cathedral was deconsecrated and is now a market and a cultural venue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Maintaining the cathedral itself was seen as an essential, if costly, town effort. St.-Flour is at the heart of Cantal, an area of France known for its green hilly landscapes and its local cheese. From a distance, the cathedral, at the top of rocky outcrop, looms over the town like a fortress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou know the saying, all roads lead to Rome?\u201d said Patrice Boulard, the meat producer in charge of climbing the tower\u2019s 145 steps to suspend the hams there. \u201cWell here in St.-Flour, all roads lead to the cathedral.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea for the curing workshop in the bell tower was the brainchild of Gilles Boyer, who was at the time the cathedral\u2019s rector, after funds that were supposed to be provided by the authorities for repairing the church\u2019s 19th-century choir organ never materialized.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A food lover who had once managed a restaurant in Paris, Mr. Boyer had already set up beehives on an unused terrace of the cathedral to produce honey for sale. The bell tower was also unused space. Why not use it for hanging hams, a specialty of the region, he wondered?<\/p>\n \u201cIt all started as a joke,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it wasn\u2019t so dumb after all.\u201d<\/p>\n Altitude, a local charcuterie cooperative made up of some 40 pig breeders, loved the idea, partly for the marketing potential, but also for what they believed to be the special quality of the air and conditions in the tower for curing hams.<\/p>\n \u201cIt creates a link between business and heritage, between a product and its terroir<\/a>,\u201d said Thierry Bousseau, the company\u2019s communication manager.<\/p>\n The project was approved by both state and church authorities, and the first batch of hams was put on sale in markets, in the church and online in the spring of 2022, for about $150 each, about $50 more than what an average local artisanal ham would fetch. The profits, once Altitude recouped its costs, were given to the cathedral.<\/p>\n Overall, about 300 hams have been sold and more than $12,000 was spent to finally restore the organ, Mr. Bousseau said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The project was called \u201cFlorus Solatium,\u201d a tribute to the town\u2019s supposed founder, a fifth-century saint called Florus whose relics are kept in the cathedral. According to legend<\/a>, the saint miraculously escaped bandits by reaching the top of the cliff, where residents welcomed him with a traditional local ham. \u201cQuid solatium!\u201d he was said to have exclaimed. \u201cWhat a solace!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Most of the maturation process for the hams takes place in Altitude warehouses in a nearby town. But Mr. Boyer, the former rector, is convinced that the three months they spend attached to the tower\u2019s wooden beams, exposed to the wind and to the bell\u2019s vibrations, is what gives the meat its special quality.<\/p>\n