Rethink Heritage

Rempart union is a French heritage network with more than 180 local associations working on the preservation, restoration and promotion of heritage sites. The name Rempart is an acronym for 'Réhabilitation et entretien des monuments et du patrimoine artistique', meaning 'Rehabilitation and maintenance of monuments and artistic heritage', while the word 'Rempart' itself means a protective wall or embankment (rampart) used in fortification architecture. The organisation was set up in 1966 by Touring Club de France, which was originally an old cyclist association dealing with the development of tourism. Two years later Rempart was turned into a union and kept this form until recent times with a number of member associations being active in 14 of the French regions (all 13 European regions + Martinique). The union had been supported by the Ministry of Culture from the very beginning and later important co-operations started with the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs as well as the Ministry of Youth to help the growth of the international network and the involvement of young volunteers. Since 1982 it has been acting as a public body.

Voluntary Heritage Restoration Camps - Work & Training

Rempart's main profile is organising heritage restoration camps and training courses with the participation and involvement of a great number of volunteers every year. The volunteers arrive not only from France but from all over the world and similarly, the restoration camps are not only organised in France but some take place in other European countries and sometimes even on other continents too. The yearly number of participants exceeds the number of 3,500 at all the different locations altogether. The network has worked at more than 800 heritage sites already with being the local partners in charge for organising all the works and the involvement of the volunteers. The member associations cooperate with the local authorities and the already mentioned ministries in the assembly of the work end educational programme and the realisation of the restoration or maintenance works. Besides restoring the monuments, Rempart always looks for the long-term reuse of the historical sites in a form that is useful for the local communities. The range of building types involved in the restoration and redevelopment projects is wide, they include castles, chapels, different industrial buildings such as lime kilns or wash houses and naturally dwellings too.

Rempart has become a well-recognizable label throughout the years, not only for their restoration works, but also for the useful development of historical areas, for intercultural exchanges between the volunteering participants and for the social bonds created by the projects. The realisation of the camps does not require professional architectural work only, but also a well-developed training policy and a high quality management with proper and continuous assessment and analysis of the actions carried out at the different locations. The material cost of the restoration projects are financed by the ministries and the local authorities mainly, besides different kinds of donations. The workforce is mainly provided by the volunteers who offer their work for free and in exchange they receive professional training in different building trades, such as in masonry, carpentry, smithery, stone carving or stained glass creation. Some specific trainings are also available on completely different topics too which are not connected with craftsmanship but they are more connected to important topics of archeology, management tasks or pedagogy for site organisation. However it is not only the trainings that the volunteers can benefit from being active at the site. They learn commitment, being part of a collective work experience, dealing with responsibilities and building social bonds in an intercultural experience while developing their personal approach to a specific monument and also in general to the protection of cultural heritage. So the effective participation certainly means a good promotion to heritage ideas too through the experiences and good memories and this allows hope for the newer and newer generations of experts and enthusiasts to care about monuments and heritage sites both locally and globally.

Further activities

Besides organising restoration and training camps in France and all around the world, Rempart is also very active in organising special heritage events, lectures and exhibitions, while their homepage serves as a great database for their heritage sites and both their national and international networks. There are also clear guidelines available on how to be a member (friend) or member organisation of the Rempart network, on how to participate in the restoration camps and what type of professions and trades can be learned at practised at the heritage sites.