At the invitation of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, more than 12 million visitors attended the 31st European Days
Cultural Heritage, Natural Heritage, held on September 20 and 21
«Cultural heritage, natural heritage»
The European Heritage Days have opened up new horizons this year. By associating cultural heritage and natural heritage, the objective of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, in partnership with the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, is to highlight the links that unite heritage in all its forms with the environment that surrounds it, shelters it and the sublime. It also means recognizing heritage in a broader definition by opening it up to that of a site or landscape.
After welcoming the first visitors to the Palais-Royal (8,500 visitors), Fleur Pellerin, Minister of Culture and Communication, together with visual artist Gérard Garouste inaugurated the exhibition Caves and ornate shelters, first representations of the environment. She then went to the 14th arrondissement of Paris to visit the Montsouris reservoir, a drinking water reserve built in the 19th century on one of the highest points in the south of the capital. It ended its journey in the Val d'Oise with the discovery of the Château de la Roche-Guyon which combines, in the Vexin Nature Park, a remarkable geographical site and ten centuries of exceptional history.
The Minister said: I welcome the renewed success each year of this great popular moment. The European Heritage Days are
an unmissable event on the agenda of French people who are so attached to their heritage, and on this occasion they come to appropriate the emblematic places».
Many visitors came to discover:
- exceptional cultural and natural sites, such as the houses of the rocks of Graufthal in Alsace (500 visitors),
- Sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for both cultural and natural interest, such as the 9-9bis pit tile in Onions
in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, both a mining site, a residential area, a natural area and a conversion site (1,050 visitors),
- archaeological sites, such as the arenas of Doué-La-Fontaine in the Pays de la Loire, dug between the sixth and ninth centuries in the shell stone on which the city rests (450 visitors),
- parks and gardens, such as the Harcourt estate in Haute-Normandie, with a "Remarkable Garden" designation (1,300 visitors),
- sites exploiting natural resources, such as the Montsouris reservoir in Île-de-France, which, built in the 19th century, still supplies drinking water to the entire centre of Paris (4,200 visitors).
The European Heritage Days are organized by the Ministry of Culture and Communication in association, this year, with the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy. Placed under the patronage of the Council of Europe and the European Commission, they receive the support of the National Monuments Centre, the Network of Cities and Countries of Art and History, of the Heritage Foundation and associations for the preservation of the heritage and the defense of the environment and the nature among which the Old French houses, the historical House, the conservatory of the coast, the League of protection of birds, etc.
The Michelin Group and the Michelin Corporate Foundation, the French Building Federation, the RATP and the City Hall of Paris offer their loyal support, while Metronews, Art&Décoration, France Télévisions and Radio France guarantee them extensive media coverage.
They benefited for the first time this year from the involvement of the Lidl distribution group, Huffington Post and Readspeaker.
Also for the first time this year, a collaboration has been established with the Public Transport Day which made it possible to set up, on Saturday, September 20, joint actions with the GIE Objectif transport public and the French actors of mobility.
Fleur Pellerin sends them its warmest thanks and to all those who allow each year the holding of this great
heritage festival.
And join us on 19 and 20 September 2015 for the thirtieth edition of the European Heritage Days.