The residents of Le Tréport (Seine-Maritime) were in for a very nasty surprise on Thursday the 15th of August 2024. The imposing stone cross, which is located on Place Charles de Gaulle and is a listed monument, was vandalised in the middle of the night. It was found in several pieces by city officials in the early hours of the morning. The municipality filed a complaint and an investigation was launched to find the perpetrators and shed light on the matter.
The mayor of Le Tréport, Laurent Jacques, is particularly affected by this act of vandalism. ‘It’s quite upsetting for the councillors, but also upsetting for the population,’ he explains. It’s a cross that has been there since 1600 and has been a listed building since 1913. And everyone is wondering why and how’.
According to the mayor’s initial findings, the damage was the work of a group of drunken youths who were in the area at around 4am. ‘We suspect that they hung themselves around the monument,’ describes Laurent Jacques. Perhaps it had also become brittle over time, you can also hypothesise a few things, but they must have hung around it and unfortunately the monument gave way.’
The member of council would also like to dispel some rumours about the vandals’ motives. He explains that he remains convinced ‘that this act has nothing to do with religious vandalism’ and that it was just a coincidence that it happened on August 15, the day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. […] France Bleu
