() is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, a garden, a bridge, or other structure, because of their importance to France's architectural and historical cultural heritage.Bady, Jean-Pierre (1998). . Presses Universitaires de France. p. 26. Both public and privately owned structures may be listed in this way, as well as movable objects. there were 44,236 monuments listed.
The term "classification" is reserved for designation performed by the French Ministry of Culture for a monument of national-level significance. Monuments of lesser significance may be "inscribed" by various regional entities.
Buildings may be given the classification (or inscription) for either their exteriors or interiors. A monument's designation could be for a building's décor, its furniture, a single room, or even a staircase. An example is the classification of the décor in the café "Deux Garçons" in Aix-en-Provence whose patrons once included Alphonse de Lamartine, Émile Zola and Paul Cézanne. Some buildings are designated because of their connection to a single personality, such as the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise which is designated an MH because of its connection to the painter Vincent van Gogh. Since the 1990s, a significant number of places have been given the designation because of their historical importance to science.
The MH designation traces its roots to the French Revolution when the government appointed Alexandre Lenoir to specify and safeguard certain structures. Though the first classifications were given in the 19th century by the writer Prosper Mérimée, inspector-general of historical monuments, by a first list established in 1840. In 1851, Mérimée organized the Missions Héliographiques to document France's medieval architecture.
A may be marked by the official logo for the program, signage for which is distributed by the , a union of French historical restoration associations. It consists of a design representing the labyrinth that used to be in Reims Cathedral, which is itself a World Heritage Site. Use of the logo is optional.
Terminology
The notion of historical monument, sparked by both the ideas of the French Revolution and Romanticism, led to a policy of protection founded by the July Monarchy. This is a recognition of public interest for buildings (buildings, gardens and parks, archaeological reserves, etc.) which more specifically concerns the art and history attached to the monument and constitutes a public utility easement.
There are two levels of protection: registration as historical monuments (formerly known as "registration in the supplementary inventory of historic monuments"),. for furniture and buildings of regional interest, and the classification as historical monuments to a level of national interest. Usually, places (in the first case) are said to be "registered", and objects are said to be "classified"..
The two protections can also apply to movable objects (either furniture proper, or buildings by destination) of historical, artistic, technical, etc. interest. under the name of classification under object title or (rarer) of registration under object title as well as for the census.
Long subject to the provisions of the law of 31 December 1913,Loi sur les monuments historiques promulguée le 31 décembre 1913. This law was repealed and codified in the Heritage Code, but the repeal was deferred until the publication of the regulatory part of the code in 2011. classification and registration are now governed by Title II of Book VI of the Heritage Code and can take 15 to 18 months (legislative part and regulatory part) to fully enshrine a place or object. From a legal point of view, this protection constitutes an official French label.
History
Genesis The ("National Properties"), created in the wake of the nationalization of Church property (Decree of the clergy property made available to the Nation of 2 November 1789),Clément Benelbaz, Le principe de laïcité en droit public français (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2011) coll. « Logiques juridiques ». (), p. 59. emigrants (Decree of 9 November 1791)Chantal Georgel, La Jeunesse des musées: les musées de France au XIXe siècle (Paris: Éditions de la réunion des musées nationaux, 1994), p. 23. and the crown of France (Decree of 10 August 1792), have had varying fortunes. Some were appropriated by the state due to popular vindictiveness, giving rise to the notion of vandalism invented by the Abbé Grégoire in a report presented to the Convention on 31 August 1794 on "the destruction carried out by vandalism and the means of recovering it".Jean Hubert, Nouveau recueil d'études d'archéologie et d'histoire, de la fin du monde antique au Moyen Âge, (Paris: Librairie Droz, 1985), p. 41. Other properties have been kept by the state and have changed functions (prisons such as Maguelone, Clairvaux, Mont-Saint-Michel), but the greater part were sold to individuals, often to serve as a quarry for building materials and have disappeared (Abbey of Cluny, Vézelay Abbey, etc.).Bernard Bodinier and Éric Teyssier, L'événement le plus important de la Révolution : la vente des biens nationaux (1789-1867) en France et dans les territoires annexés (Paris: Société des études robespierristes, 2000), p. 416.
In 1790, Aubin Louis Millin spoke for the first time of "historical monument" in a report submitted to the Constituent Assembly on the occasion of the demolition of the Bastille. The phrase "Historic monument" thus became symbolic of the pre-revolutionary era, the Ancien Régime. The idea of preserving a site linked to the Ancien Régime circulated, and the Assembly, under the impetus of Talleyrand, adopted the decree of 13 October 1790, which created the Commission of Monuments, whose role is to study "the fate of monuments, arts and sciences". In 1791, Alexandre Lenoir was appointed to create the Museum of French Monuments, opened in 1795, in which he gathered the fragments of architecture that he had managed to save from destruction over the previous several years. But this museum was closed by Louis XVIII under the ordinance of 24 April 1816, during the Restoration, and its collections, which were to be returned "to families and churches", were ultimately dispersed from state control.Françoise Choay, L'allégorie du patrimoine (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1992), p. 218.
The vandalism of the French built environment that accompanied the anticlerical nature of the French Revolution subsequently inspired numerous responses, particularly ones tinged with nostalgia and romanticism; for example, either Chateaubriand or Victor Hugo published in 1825 a pamphlet, War for Demolition.Read on Wikisource The protection of historic monuments necessarily involves the creation of an inventory, and from 1795 onward the council of civil buildings completed the inventory of the castles that Louis XVI had started.
In 1820, Baron Taylor and Charles Nodier published their Picturesque and Romantic Voyages in Ancient France, at the time when the first archaeological societies in the country were being formed.Jean-Claude Yon, Histoire culturelle de la France au XIXe siècle (Paris: Armand Colin, 2010), p. 57. The Celtic Academy was founded in 1804 by Éloi Johanneau and others, who met for the first time on 3 Ventôse year XIII (22 February 1805). This first association was to be devoted only to the study of the Celts, but quickly its members became interested in national antiquities. As early as 1811, Roquefort proposed to change the name of the society to give it one more in line with its activity. The new statutes as well as the new one of the company, Société des antiquaires de France, were adopted on 29 October 1813. Arcisse de Caumont founded the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy in 1824, and the French Society of Archeology in 1834. The Archaeological Society of the South of France was founded by Alexandre Du Mège in 1831. In 1834 the Société des Antiquaires de l'Ouest was founded in Poitiers by Charles Mangon de La Lande from members of the Academic Society of Agriculture, Belles Lettres, Sciences and Arts of Poitiers, itself founded in 1818. Other societies would follow in the various departements such as the Société des antiquaires de Picardie à Amiens. In turn, the Committee for Historical and Scientific Work was founded by François Guizot in 1834 to direct research and support that of various learned societies.
Creation of the , 1819–1880 In 1819, for the first time, the budget of the Ministry of the Interior included an allowance of 80,000 francs for "historical monuments", about one-fifteenth of the total sum.Jean Mallion, Victor Hugo et l'art architectural, (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1962), p. 420. Under the July Monarchy, on 21 October 1830, the Minister of the Interior, François Guizot proposed in a report presented to King Louis-Philippe to create the post of Inspector of Historic Monuments which he assigned to Ludovic Vitet on 25 November 1830, then reassigned to Prosper Mérimée on 27 May 1834.Nabila Oulebsir, Les usages du patrimoine: monuments, musées et politique coloniale en Algérie, 1830-1930 (Paris: Les Éditions de la MSH), 2004, p. 98.Graham Keith Barnett, Histoire des Bibliothèques Publiques en France, de la Révolution à 1939 (Paris: Cercle De La Librairie, 1987), p. 92.André Dupont-Sommer, Prosper Mérimée et l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (Paris: Institut de France, 1970), p. 4. The mission of the Inspector of Historic Monuments was to classify the buildings and to distribute the funds for maintenance and restoration. On 29 September 1837, the Minister of the Interior, the Count of Montalivet, officially established the Commission for Historic Monuments (), succeeding the former Committee for the Arts. Composed of seven volunteers and chaired by Jean Vatout, the Director of Public monuments, the new Commission carried out inventory and classification work (classification on the basis of political considerations then emphasizing around 1835 sites primarily of historical interest only, expanded from 1841 to include those for their architectural quality) and the allocation of funding. It was also responsible for training architects who work on monuments (starting with Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc).Paul Léon, La vie des monuments français: destruction, restauration (Paris: Daupeley-Gouverneur, 1951), p. 126.
In 1840, the Commission published its first list, composed of 1082 historical monuments, including 934 buildings.Françoise Férat, Rapport d'information no 599, Au service d'une politique nationale du patrimoine: le rôle incontournable du Centre des monuments nationaux, 30 June 2010. This list consisted only of prehistoric monuments and ancient and medieval buildings (those constructed between the 5th and 16th centuries), which predictably included many religious buildings, but also objects that today might be termed broadly "material culture", such as the Bayeux Tapestry. All of these sites were and remain properties of the state, the department or the municipality in which they are located, the conservation of which requires work (and therefore funds).Annie Gondras, La valorisation touristique des châteaux et demeures historiques (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2012), p. 23.