It is the second most visited cathedral in France, after that of Paris. Each year, more than 4 million tourists walk through the nave of the strasbourg cathedral
, or climb 66 meters high on the platform. Without suspecting for a second that the building houses a biotope of great richness. Because the stone vessel
is also a very safe nest for many species of birds.
This is what a book that comes out this Friday, November 7 says: “Wild Cathedral, in the footsteps of the birds of Strasbourg Cathedral” (editions of La Nuée Bleue) signed Pauline Bugeon and Cédric Chambin. For many species of birds, therefore, the building is above all a large, very welcoming cave rock.
“There are many species of sedentary birds, but also migratory ones. We saw in particular the black swift which nests in the cathedral, in places difficult to suspect, where we cannot go. So they are really quiet“says Pauline Bugeon.
© Radio France
–
Antoine Balandra
Three-banded kinglets, great tits, peregrine falcons and kestrels also live in the cathedral. More surprising, the cathedral also houses a whole menagerie of mammals. “We obviously have mice, which climb tens of meters to eat the butterflies or the remains left by the birds. There are also weasels and bats” explains Cédric Chambin.
Add to that, insects: butterflies, bees, and even more incredible, vegetation. “There was a wild cherry tree which grew on an arrow. It had to be removed because the roots could endanger the stone. It is because there are a lot of products, droppings which accumulate in some corners. And all it takes is for a crow or a wood pigeon to pass by, an animal that has eaten cherries, for it to reject the pits and for it to take hold. So we ended up with a pretty three-foot tree. fifty that had to be removed“continues the author.
And then we must not forget the sculpted animals. Ox, sheep, cat, cat or rat constitute the stone bestiary of the cathedral.
The book therefore appears this Friday, November 4 at the editions of La Nuée Bleue, 27 euros. It is accompanied by a documentary bythe outing will take place at the UGC in Strasbourg on December 9 at 8:10 p.m.