Monument historique

An example is the monument historique 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.

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.

[9] 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.

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.

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.

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.

[13] 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.

Thus for this purpose, in 1851 the Commission created the Mission Héliographique, responsible for photographing French monuments, one of the earliest and most significant widespread and systematic uses of photography, one of whose chief employees was Édouard-Denis Baldus.

However, local authorities, the Catholic Church and the French Army were reluctant to recognize the prerogatives of the state over their heritage; furthermore, the classification of monuments that were privately owned required the owners' consent.

Proposed by the Minister of Public Education Aristide Briand, the law of April 21, 1906, on the protection of natural sites and monuments of artistic character, resulted from the action carried out among others by the Society of Friends of Trees (founded in 1898 by Julien-François Jeannel), the French Alpine Club, the Society for the Protection of Landscapes and the aesthetics of France, and the Touring Club of France, which had all protested vigorously against the effects of industrialization.

The law of December 31, 1913, on historic monuments complemented and improved the provisions of the 1887 law, widening the field of protection of the classification criteria (to properties whose conservation no longer responds simply to the notion of "national interest" but to that of "public interest", which also takes into account the small local heritage classification extended to private property without needing the consent of the owner, a prelude to registration in the additional inventory), defining the obligatory actors, establishing criminal and civil sanctions in the event of unauthorized work on listed monuments, etc.

That same year, the Commission of Historic Monuments also accepted four castles dating from later than the Middle Ages: Luxembourg Palace, Versailles, Maisons-Laffitte, and the Louvre.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the classification opened up to private heritage, which created an easement which was then considered as a deprivation of property (see on this subject the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans in 1926), but which was then compensated by the subsidization of works, then by tax advantages.

On October 4, 1962, a new law empowered the Minister of Culture André Malraux to safeguard sectors of towns that were first created by the decree of March 4, 1964.

At the same time the mission of maritime and fluvial heritage, with the classification of lighthouses, beacons, river cranes, then boats (the first of these were the three-masted Duchesse Anne and the barge Mad-Atao in 1982), etc.

In reality, there are therefore several hundred thousand existing buildings, if not several million, which are directly or indirectly protected in France by a rigorous aesthetic and heritage control, during any work on them.

The Architecture and Heritage Media Library (MAP) is responsible for collecting, conserving and communicating the archives and documentation of the administration of historic monuments since its creation in 1830 and the state's photographic heritage, comprising more than four million prints and fifteen million negatives dating back to the origins of photography and including those relating to historical monuments.

[25] The LRMH is responsible for carrying out scientific and technical studies as well as research on the conservation of buildings and cultural heritage objects protected as Historical Monuments.

In the context of buildings or objects requiring an archaeological study or found during excavations, the regional archeology service can examine the file.

In the event of refusal by the owner of the building or of the object that it is proposed to classify, the classification can be carried out ex officio by decree in Council of State.

Maintenance, repair and restoration work carried out for the conservation of the building may benefit from state aid (limited to 40% of the total amount, but cumulative with those, if any, from other communities).

When the owner, the beneficiary, his agent or any person providing proof of a title authorizing him to have work carried out informs the regional prefect of his intention to carry out a work project on a building, an object or an organ protected, the regional prefect makes available to him the state of knowledge at his disposal on the property in question and indicates to him the regulatory, architectural and technical constraints that the project must respect.

They can call on a monument restoration association, which then implements the rehabilitation of the listed heritage through concrete actions (masonry, stone cutting, guided tours, etc.)

Since the SRU law, the protection perimeter corresponding to the first case can be modified (widened or narrowed), on a proposal from the architect of the buildings of France, with the agreement of the municipal council .

Since the law on the freedom of creation, architecture and heritage (2016), the perimeter is established if possible after agreement of the authority (municipal or inter-municipal) competent to set the local urban plan.

However, this exemption is not automatic, and is subject to the signing of an indefinite agreement with the Ministers of Culture and Finance including a commitment to conservation and openness to the public.

However, the tax administration is tolerant as regards the estimation of these historic residences, because it must take into account the particular penalties which weigh on the owner because of the protection and the opening to the public.

Examples of buildings classified as monument historique include well known Parisian structures such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the Palais Garnier opera house, plus abbeys, churches such as Corbiac, and cathedrals such as Notre Dame de Paris or hotels such as the Crillon.

Classification of a monument historique is similar to the listing of a property onto the United States' National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

Monument historique logo, based on the Labyrinth of the Reims Cathedral
Despite its size, the steam locomotive 141 R 1199 is classified as an object, [ 2 ] as boats can also be.
The dome covering the antenna of the space telecommunications center of Pleumeur-Bodou was classified in 2000 as historical monuments and according to the label "Patrimoine du XXe siècle" (Patrimony of the 20th century).
The General Leclerc , sloop shelly in Brest , classified as a historical monument in 2005
Ludovic Vitet served as the first Inspector of Historic Monuments from 1830 to 1834.
The Eiffel Tower was registered as a historic monument on 24 June 1964.
Henri Labrouste's Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, with its famous reading room, was not listed until 1988.
The Villa Majorelle in Nancy was one of the early sites classified as "20th Century Heritage", as part of the work of the Ecole de Nancy in 1999.
The Church of Notre-Dame du Taur in Toulouse ( Haute-Garonne ), was one of the original historic monuments classified by the French state in 1840.
The Schlumpf automobile collection was classified as a monument historique in 2018 to prevent its dispersal. It is on display in Paris at the National Museum of the Automobile.
Density of monuments historiques by 100 km 2 (red is the highest)
The Croix de chemin du Moustoir ( Côtes-d'Armor ), registered as a monument historique on 22 January 1927
Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-duc, a friend of Prosper Merrimée, was one of the first architects employed to restore some of the first buildings listed on the Historic Monuments register in 1840.
The old citadel and walls of Carcassonne were controversially restored by Viollet-le-duc to a state that had never existed at any point in history in 1853.
The Church of Saint-Lambert-et-Saint-Blaise , in Saint-Lambert ( Yvelines ), is classified as a historical monument, as are, independently, its bell on the one hand, and the cemetery on the other.
The Château de Villandry in the Indre-et-Loire departement was listed as MH in 1934.
Fontevraud Abbey , founded in 1101 in Angers ( Maine-et-Loire ), was suppressed during the French Revolution but named one of the first monuments historiques on the 1840 list.
The Phare d'Eckmühl ( Finistère ) is one of many lighthouses relatively recently added to the list of French historic monuments as part of a recognition of France's significant maritime built environment.