Regional Management
Direction régionale des affaires culturelles Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 23, boulevard du Roi René 13617 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 1 tel. 04 42 16 19 00 - fax 04 42 38 03 22
The DRAC in a few words
The Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs is a decentralized department of the Ministry of Culture. Placed under the authority of the Prefect of the Region and, for the missions under its jurisdiction, under the functional authority of the Prefect of Department, the DRAC brings together the departmental units of architecture and heritage placed in each of the six departments of the region.
In this new configuration the DRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur is now organized around two directions:
- direction patrimoines, architecture et espaces protégés
- direction création, publics et territoires
- If you are looking to contact someone at the DRAC, you will find our contact information in clicking here.
The story of his installation at the 23 bd of King René
The Regional Directorate for Cultural Affairs Provence-alp es-Côte d'Azur was established in 1974 and initially installed in the premises of the Estienne Hotel Saint-Jean at 17, rue Gaston de Saporta.
The first regional director, appointed by the minister, was Roger Delarozière. Then the DRAC services moved in 1979 to the premises of the Boulevard du Roi René in Aix-en-Provence, located at the southern limits of the saved area of the city. Several directors have succeeded each other: Jean Dumas, Jean Soler, Werner Rauch, François de Banes Gardonne, Jérôme Bouët, Jean-Luc Bredel, François Brouat, Denis Louche and since October 2015, Marc Ceccaldi.
This building has a history. Its oldest part is the "chapel". It is indeed the former chapel of the Refuge, built in the early eighteenth century, which was completed by another building no doubt located on the site of the current main building. Under the Ancien Régime, the Refuge was an institution for collecting women convicted of crimes or misconduct. Since the Refuge was abolished at the beginning of the Revolution, the premises were assigned to the children of Charity.
From 1900, the building of the former Refuge housed the collections of the museum of natural history, then the city ceded it in 1936 to the Air Ministry to install the services of the 4th aerial region.
The chapel is still well identifiable, notably by its apse on the boulevard and its facade is designed in the perspective of the Peyssonel street.
Since the installation of the services of the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, the building has been the subject of many interior improvements made necessary to meet the new functionalities.
In view of the strong growth in manpower in the mid-1980s, the regional archaeology service had to be transferred in 1995 to Espace Forbin, less than 500 metres from the main building with the assistance of the municipality of Aix-en-Provence. An extension of the main building was erected on the site of King René in 2000 to accommodate the services of cultural action.
