Putting heritage
“at the service of the general interest”
.
This is the new project of the Center des Monuments Nationaux (CMN).
The public establishment in charge of the management of a hundred historical monuments announced on January 10 to launch an experiment on the creation of “third places” within some of the state dependencies which it deals with.
The idea?
Transform a castle or a citadel into a hybrid space for work (
“coworking”
), cultural, associative or entrepreneurial activities.
So many spaces designed as new places for social ties, which the CMN intends to develop.
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For the president of the institution, Philippe Bélaval, it is a question
of "adjusting the strategy of the CMN and putting its network of sites and monuments at the service of the social emergency".
An action that is all the more urgent, as
“the health crisis has had an effect of dispersion, of fragmentation of society”
, he specified during a videoconference on Tuesday.
Consequently, the national heritage mission needs to be adapted, argues Philippe Bélaval, who confirms the establishment's desire to "
adjust its strategy
" in order to win back - or win over - the local public.
And retain, with the same gesture, the foreign public.
Villers-Cotterêts castle on the list
After having temporarily transformed one of the towers of the port of La Rochelle into a vaccinodrôme, former stables will thus be restored to house student accommodation in Saint-Cloud (Hauts-de-Seine).
A feasibility study has also been launched on the possibility of setting up “third places” in several castles.
On the list of sites considered are the castle of Angers (Maine-et-Loire), that of Jossigny (Seine-et-Marne), Châteaudun (Eure-et-Loir) and the citadel of Mont-Dauphin (Hautes -Alps).
The castle of Villers-Cotterêts (Aisne) is also part of the lot.
In the process of being restored, it should house this spring the International City of the French language wanted by Emmanuel Macron.
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"The objective is that one of them can start to have sufficient activity from 2022 to learn lessons and expand the experience in 2023,"
said Philippe Bélaval.
In a press release released on January 10, the CMN defined these “third places” as being
“strictly speaking neither places of residence, nor places of work”
, but
“open and hybrid spaces carried by a collective”
, supposed to promote
"meetings and exchanges between the actors of a territory in a friendly and accessible setting".
Another example of the adaptation of heritage monuments to the
"mutations"
of society, culinary workshops devoted to the development of the culinary arts and gastronomy will be offered from the end of the year at the Hôtel de la Marine in Paris, also underlined the president of the CMN.
Recently restored, the Hotel already houses a
"coworking" space
cohabiting with exhibition routes.
The various cultural sites managed by the CMN - including the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel, the Arc de Triomphe and the Sainte Chapelle in Paris - only welcomed four million visitors in 2021, compared to ten million in 2018 and 2019.
