History
Premises and genesis
National assets"), established from the nationalization of the assets of the clergy (Decree on the assets of the clergy placed at the disposal of the Nation") (décret des biens du clergé mis à la disposition de la Nation), of November 2, 1789[9]), of those of emigrants (decree of November 9, 1791[10] and of those of the Crown of France (decree of August 10, 1792[10]) had mixed fortunes. Some were given over to popular revenge, giving rise to the notion of vandalism invented by Abbot Grégoire (Report presented to the Convention on August 31, 1794 on "the destructions caused by vandalism and the means of recovering them" ("les destructions opérées par le vandalisme et les moyens de les moyens de les récupérer»[11]) others were preserved by the State and changed their functions (prisons such as Maguelone&action=edit&redlink=1 "Maguelone (Hérault) (not yet written)"), Clairvaux, Le Mont-Saint-Michel), although most of them were sold to private individuals, which often served as a quarry for building materials[12] and have disappeared (Cluny Abbey, castle of the abbey of Vézelay, etc.).
In 1790, Aubin-Louis Millin spoke for the first time of a "historical monument" in a report submitted to the National Constituent Assembly of 1789, on the occasion of the demolition of the Bastille. October 13, 1790 a decree that established the Monuments Commission, whose function was to study "the fate of monuments, arts and sciences" ("le sort des monuments, des arts et des sciences") In 1791 Alexandre Lenoir was appointed to create the museum of French monuments") (musée des monuments français&action=edit&redlink=1 "Musée des monuments"). français (1795) (not yet written)"), later inaugurated in 1795, in which the fragments of architecture that were saved were gathered. But this museum was closed by Louis XVIII by order of April 24, 1816 after the return of the monarchy, during the Restoration, and its collections had to be returned "aux familles et aux Églises" and were dispersed.[13].
The vandalism caused reactions, especially romantic ones (from Chateaubriand or Victor Hugo, who published a pamphlet in 1825: Guerre aux démolisseurs). Safeguarding involved inventory work: from 1795 the council of civil buildings (conseil des bâtiments civils) completed the inventory of the castles that Louis XVI had begun; in 1820, Baron Taylor and Charles Nodier published their Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l'ancienne France [Picturesque and romantic voyages in ancient France], at the time when the first archaeological societies.[14].
The birth of "Historical Monuments"
In 1819, for the first time, the budget of the Ministry of the Interior included a line for "historical monuments", with the sum of 15 buildings being divided into fifteen. Vitet on November 25,[17] and then, on May 27, 1834, to Prosper Mérimée.[18] The mission of the inspector of historical monuments was to classify the buildings and distribute maintenance and restoration credits. On September 29, 1837, the Minister of the Interior, the Count of Montalivet, established the Historical Monuments Commission, succeeding the Arts Committee. Composed of seven benevolents and chaired by Jean Vatout), director of Public Monuments, it carried out the task of inventory, classification (a classification based first on political considerations and, after 1835, on historical interest and since 1841 on architectural quality) and on the signing of credits. It was also responsible for the training of the architects who would intervene in the monuments (starting with Eugène Viollet-le-Duc).[19].
In 1840, the Commission published its first list which had 1,082 historical monuments, of which 934 buildings.[20] The list was made up only of prehistoric monuments and ancient and medieval buildings (from the 1st century to 19th century), with the majority being religious buildings, although there were also some objects (such as the Bayeux Tapestry). They were all property of the State, the departments or the communes,[21] whose conservation required work (and therefore, credits).
Subsequently, the commission continued its inventory work, historical monuments increased in number and the scope of protection was expanded in three directions: chronological, categorical (towards vernacular architecture) and typological or conceptual (it seeks to protect a building that represents each type, the typicum, and more especially the unicum). Thus, in 1851, the Commission created the Heliographic Mission, in charge of photographing French monuments. However, the local authorities, the Church and the army were reluctant to recognize the prerogatives of the State over its heritage and the classification of the monuments of the private owners required their consent: these brakes explain why the number of monuments classified annually went from 1082 in 1848 to 1563 in 1873.[22].
Development and opening
The law of March 30, 1887 for the conservation of historical monuments established for the first time the criteria and the classification procedure. It also had provisions that established the body of chief architects of historical monuments (architectes en chef des monuments historiques), ACMH, inspired by the situation of diocesan architects and gradually replacing local architects), established by the decree of January 26, 1892.[23] In 1893 the first competition for ACMH places was held, and in 1907, Finally a decree established its status.
Proposed by the Minister of Public Instruction Aristide Briand, the law of April 21, 1906 on the protection of natural sites and monuments of an artistic nature resulted from the measures adopted, among others, by the Society of Friends of Trees (Société des amis des arbres, founded in 1898), the French Alpine Club (Club alpin français), the Society for the Protection of the Landscape and Aesthetics of France (Société pour la protection des paysages et de l'esthétique de la France")) and the Touring club de France") that opposed the effects of industrialization.[24] The law established the principle of the classification of picturesque natural sites (sites naturels pittoresques&action=edit&redlink=1 "Site classé ou inscrit (France) (not yet drafted)")).
In the law of separation of Church and State") (Loi de séparation des Églises et de l'État) of 1905, the collectivities and the State had responsibility for religious buildings, but some communes refused to take charge of some of these buildings that they did not consider to be of "national interest", while others did not hesitate to sell their assets at auction, which caused a scandal and revealed the weaknesses of the legislation of 1887.[25] The law of December 31, 1913 on historical monuments[26] completed and improved the provisions of the law of 1887, with the expansion of the scope of protection of the classification criteria (goods whose conservation responded not only to the notion of "national interest" but also of "public interest" that also took into account small local heritage; classification extended to private property without the need for the owner's consent; provision as registration in the supplementary inventory), defining mandatory interventions, the establishment of criminal and civil sanctions when working on monuments without authorization, etc.[27] That same year, the historical monuments accepted four post-Middle Ages castles: Luxembourg, Versailles, Maisons-Laffitte and Louvre. At the end of 1911, more than 4,000 buildings and 14,000 objects were already classified.[28]
During the 1920s and 1930s, the classification was opened to private heritage, which was considered a deprivation of property (see on this the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans in 1926). It also opened to the Renaissance and the classical era, that is, to the century and the century (for example, the church of Saint Genevieve in Paris in 1920). Eclectic architecture was also timidly accepted: classification in 1923 of the Opéra Garnier. After the First World War, with the abandonment of sites by the military, military architecture from the Renaissance and classical ages began to be classified. It was at the end of this period, in 1925, when it was first inventoried in a sort of second order of importance: the "inscription in the supplementary inventory of historical monuments" ("inscription à l'inventaire supplémentaire des monuments historiques"), which became in 2005 the "inscription on the title of historical monuments" ("inscription au titre des monuments historiques").
Extension and evolution of protections
The law of May 2, 1930"), which replaced that of 1906, tended to adapt the classification procedures of built monuments on the one hand, and those of sites and natural areas on the other, creating the category of "classified site and inscribed site" ("site classé et site inscrit"). It also introduced the possibility of classifying as a site an area located in the vicinity of a classified or inscribed building. The protection of classified natural sites is currently governed by the Environmental Code") (code de l'environnement).
The law of February 25, 1943, which modified the law of December 31, 1913, specified these provisions by introducing a visibility field of . The 1943 law considered that a monument is also the impression that its surroundings create. That is why the law required a form of surveillance of construction projects in the field of vision of historical monuments. Many classifications were operated during the Occupation, in order to avoid destruction by the occupation forces, and also to provide work for those responsible for the protections, so that they would escape from compulsory labor service") in Germany.
After the Second World War and the massive destruction caused by the German bombings of 1940 and the Allies of 1944 and 1945, and after the economic boom of the Trente Glorieuses in which destruction continued to rebuild again, protection, in reaction, changed scale. On October 4, 1962, André Malraux had a law (known as the Malraux law) approved (on the safeguarded sectors) that protected parts of cities and created by the decree of March 4, 1964 the "service of the general inventory of monuments and artistic riches of France", which would not only invent historical monuments. At the same time, the historical monuments were opened to the civil architecture of the 19th centuries, to the vernacular and naïve architecture with the palais idéal du facteur Cheval") in 1969, and to the monumental architecture of the 10th centuries. This is how they were inscribed or classified:
Metal architecture took a while to be recognized and classified: Victor Baltard's Les Halles were destroyed between 1971 and 1973 (a single pavilion had been classified and was reassembled in Nogent-sur-Marne, in 1977, out of its original context) and Henri Labrouste's St. Genevieve Library had to wait until 1988 to be classified.
Archives have been classified as "historical monuments" until the adoption of the 1979 law on archives, which established a specific regime (currently codified in Book II of the Heritage Code), which is closely inspired by the regime of historical monuments.
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the beginning of the protection of industrial heritage, both architectural (the mill of Jules Saulnier's Menier chocolate factory in Noisiel was classified in 1992) and machines (the Schlumpf collection) were classified in 1978 to prevent their dispersion). At the same time, the mission of maritime heritage") and river, with the classification of lighthouses, beacons and river cranes, and then the ships themselves (the first was the three-masted Duchesse Anne&action=edit&redlink=1 "Duchesse Anne (trois-mâts carré) (not yet drawn up)") in 1982, with the Mad-Atao barge"), etc. (see French Wikipedia Liste des bateaux français classés aux Monuments historiques")).