Paris zinc roofers seek UNESCO heritage status

The zinc covering the roofs of central Paris has given the French capital's skyline its distinctive grey hue for almost two centuries.

Now the roofs and the workers who create and care for them are aiming to enter a select heritage club to showcase a profession adapting to the challenges of climate change.

The French culture ministry has chosen the zinc roofers as the country's entry for the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage to be decided at the U.N. body's session in Paraguayan capital Asuncion in December.

The craftsmanship of roofers and other ornamentalists who have sculpted the capital's skyline will be among 67 candidacies vying to join other iconic heritage sites.

According to the city's urbanism agency Apur, Paris has 128,000 roofs covering a surface area of 32 million square meters, of which 21.4 million are of the traditional zinc-covered variety.

"Paris seen from above, it's obvious you're not in another city," said an enthused Delphine Burkli, mayor of the capital's ninth district.

Burkli helped initiate the French bid and first proposed in 2014 to add the roofs to UNESCO's heritage list.

But the plan has since changed as it is "very complicated," said Gilles Mermet, coordinator of the bid.

The campaign to etch the roofs into the prestigious books of world heritage stumbled when Paris town hall withdrew its support.

Mermet said it was "afraid" of "no longer being able to build in Paris without the agreement of UNESCO."

"In the end, it was more interesting to showcase the profession itself" — which struggles to recruit — more than the roofs as such, to protect the beauty of the urban landscape, he added.

The zinc the covers almost 80 percent of Parisian roofs has come...