General inventory of cultural heritage

“From the Cathedral to the Spoon”: the entire territory as a study area 

Article 95 of the Law of 13 August 2004 stipulates that the General Inventory of Cultural Heritage shall identify, study and publicise heritage elements of cultural, historical or scientific interest.  The field of investigation defined by this law is vast and covers, in fact, all the goods created by hand of man on the totality of the national territory: architecture and urbanism, objects and furniture, whether public or private, over a period from the 5th century to 30 years before the date of a given study.
 

Apply a specific method to study a given area

Within the Ministry of Culture, the Mission of the General Inventory of Cultural Heritage (MIGPC) has as its main objective the good conduct of inventory operations in the territory. To do this, it has many methodological tools for researchers of the Regional Services of the Inventory, distributed in the 17 regions of France, to better frame and standardize their study of the territory. 
 

Enrich and disseminate knowledge to the general public 

This mission, begun in 1964, has as its first virtue a comprehensive knowledge of all the built heritage and movable objects in the territory, in order to disseminate this knowledge to the greatest number. The Inventory therefore has an essentially scientific and documentary purpose for transmission to everyone. 
 

Fostering relations between actors in the same territory

Beyond being an essential player in the knowledge of the built heritage and movable objects of the different regions, the Inventory encourages and maintains privileged relations with many actors in the same territory. Multiple inventory operations are thus implemented with various partners: regional natural parks (NRP), universities, Regional Directorates of Cultural Affairs, dioceses, communities of municipalities, etc. The Inventory is therefore a central player in the development of the territory.