User:Doncram/Union Rempart

The Union Rempart, or REMPART, is a union of associations for historic preservation and for popular education, whose goal is the restoration of monuments. Founded on July 11, 1966 by the Touring Club of France, it was recognized as a French public utility organization in 1982.

REMPART is an acronym for Réhabilitation et entretien des monuments et du patrimoine artistique, and is French for the English word rampart (which is one of the kind of monuments that the Union and its members seek to preserve).

The 170 member associations of the union all have in common the desire to restore and safeguard monuments (elements of cultural heritage) and to bring them back to life. They act in favor of local development and regional planning, particularly in rural areas. Most of them organize volunteer workcamps that allow thousands each year to take part in community projects to safeguard and enhance heritage. REMPART construction sites are not only places for discovering heritage and restoration techniques, but also places for learning community life and exercising citizenship.

Cultural heritage
The member associations of Rempart address varied monuments: chapels, forts, priories, castles, mills, lime kilns, railways, gardens, ironworks, plazas, and more, whether these properties are protected as Historic Monuments or are just merely small heritage sites. Monuments may date from prehistory to modern eras, and may be in any location, without any type being particularly privileged. The objective of the REMPART movement is both to restore the heritage and also to ensure that buildings and other properties, once restored, are reused and play a role in contemporary society. Restoration and reuse are inseparable.

Operations
Each project is the result of collaboration between a member association of Rempart on the one hand and local partners (population, local authorities, public authorities) on the other. It takes into account the social, economic and cultural environment of the building concerned, the human, financial and technical resources available to the local association, as well as the specifics of the building. The projects benefit from the support of the nation, regions, departments and local authorities, as well as from various private partnerships. Private partners include the Heritage Foundation, the Foundation for Historic Monuments (under the aegis of the Fondation de France), the Hermès Foundation, the Total Foundation, and more. REMPART is also the distributor of "Monument historique" plaques.

The objective is that each of the sites supported by a member association not only be saved or restored, but also reused and brought to life as part of a long-term local development project: a medieval ruin becomes a place of entertainment, a rural house, a tourist lodge, a museum, etc.

To publicize its actions, REMPART publishes annual catalogs presenting volunteer workcamps and training courses offered by its member associations.

Its annual congress is hosted regional associations in different places each time. For example in 2014 in Aveyron footnote4, in 2015 in Meuse footnote5. The REMPART union celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2016 footnote6.

International partners
Union Rempart's associations operate mainly in France, in connection with State services, but they sometimes carry out projects abroad in collaboration with associations or other partners of a host country, for example in Italy, Spain or even China7. Les chantiers bénévoles de REMPART en Chine

In addition to preservation and restoration efforts, the association aims to reuse and animate the places where it acts, based on the observation that a building, or a natural or archaeological site risks returning quickly to its previous state of degradation if a function is not found for it in agreement with local communities.

Education and training
If the restoration of heritage is an objective of the Rempart Movement, it is also a tool for the education and training of the individual, as well as a vector of social and even professional integration.[Personal interpretation?] The site is used as a place of taking responsibility, the autonomy of each volunteer being favored, and also of technical learning (stone cutting, manufacture of stained glass, masonry, etc.), with a particular emphasis on the rediscovery and transmission of ancient techniques and local know-how (particularly through in-depth training courses).

Rempart's member associations also carry out study work, building surveys, archival research and archaeological work to ensure the long-term preservation and restoration of the buildings for which they are responsible.

Finally, many other actions are carried out within the Union to contribute to better education of the general public: organization of conferences and shows, guided tours of sites, publication of books, brochures, guides, research, etc.

Publications
Rempart is also a publisher.

Technical manuals
Rempart has published five technical manuals intended for volunteers and trainees:
 * Organisation et sécurité d'un chantier de bénévoles, 1986, 1998, 2008 ISBN 2-904365-29-X
 * Thibaut Girard, Les Recherches en archives, 1988, 1999, 2006 ISBN 2-904365-05-2
 * Marie-Pierre Baudry, Comprendre et restaurer un monument : De l'étude à la réutilisation, 1993 ISBN 2-904365-21-4
 * Jean-Frédéric Berger, Taille de pierre, 2008 ISBN 978-2-904365-50-8
 * Christophe Robert et Hervé Thillard, Maçonnerie traditionnelle : Techniques de construction et de restauration, 2008 ISBN 978-2-904365-49-2

Living history
Initially, the Living Heritage collection was created to answer questions from volunteers working on restoration sites. The first title, Châteaux fortifications, written by André Châtelain, was published in 1983.

Over the years, the public has grown considerably, and today, readers are simply people who are curious and passionate about heritage [ref. necessary]. To boost the promotion of these works, Rempart has joined forces with the publisher Desclée de Brouwer, which distributes the books in bookstores.

Through this collection, Rempart wishes to offer a broad vision of heritage. Living Heritage themes are very varied. In addition to rather traditional subjects on built heritage - "Fortified castles", "Fortresses", "Medieval residences" - the collection also addresses cultural heritage, transmitted through know-how - "Costumes", "Chants and instruments" - or even rarer subjects such as "Cathedral district", "Mansions" or "Canons" (last title published).

For building Notes and references
fn1 The national group on heritage [archive] 8 associations recognized as being of public utility constitute, with the help of the association "Les Journées Juridiques du Patrimoine", the "G8 du patrimoine": National Federation of Associations for the Safeguarding of Sites and monumental ensembles; The Historic Residence; Urban and rural league; Peasant houses of France; Society for the Protection of Landscapes and Aesthetics of France; REMPART Union; Old French houses; The Safeguarding of French Art

fn2 Heritage Foundation: [1] [archive]

fn3 See: [2] [archive]

fn4 La Dépêche, June 13, 2014: [3] [archive]

fn5 Château de Gombervaux, Republican East, March 24, 2015.

fn6 See the details on the "J'M mon patrimoine" website (interview with the national delegate): [4] [archive]

fn7 See the website of the French Embassy in China: [5] [archive]

Category:Organizations established in 1966 Category:Historic sites in France Category:WikiProject Europe articles Category:WikiProject France articles Category:Historic preservation by country Category:WikiProject Historic sites articles