Heritage defense associations try to bring the rich history of the capital to life on a daily basis, far from tourist routes and emblematic monuments.
In the basement of the Ourscamp house, buried under a pile of rubble, is a magnificent medieval cellar. That was exactly sixty years ago. The association Paris Historique, newly created, fought to save the building on rue François Miron, unsanitary and doomed to destruction, like a large part of the Marais district of the time. “If the building had been razed the cellar would have disappeared, since at the time we were digging to make parking lots“, says Grégory Chaumet, current president of the association and member of the Old Paris commission. After tough negotiations, the City, owner of the premises, agrees to assign a lease to the association. It is up to it to restore it. The last vestiges of this house occupied in the 13th century by the Cistercian monks who came to trade in the capital (and derogating from the rule of Saint Benoit) have thus been saved in the basement. from the commitment of hundreds of enthusiasts.
/2023/02/24/63f8e8381ff86_ourscamp-en-1663.jpg)
From the facade to the roof, passing through the courtyard and the staircase, the building dating from the 16th century has since regained its luster. Only the construction site in the basement still remains. “For sixty years, we have set ourselves the objective of restoring this medieval cellar, but other works have taken over, and it is only now that we are starting this major project.“, explains Grégory Chaumet.
/2023/02/24/63f8e97c33359_facade-ph.jpg)
A daily struggle
The association (not subsidized), which is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this year, has taken the full brunt of the Covid crisis. “Not being a company, we did not receive any help (of the state),” he explains. “To tell you frankly, for twenty-one years we had an employee whom we had to lay off“Today, Paris Historique only brings together volunteers, around a hundred.
Paradoxically, if the building site of the cellar attracts significant donations from the Heritage Foundation and the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs of Ile-de-France, the association is struggling to recruit new members, a financial windfall that is essential in order to live the structure and fight other fights. “It is exactly the same paradox as for Notre-Dame, explains Grégory Chaumet. Hundreds of millions of euros are put in to rebuild the cathedral, but a few steps away churches are collapsing“.
Hidden by the emblematic monuments of the capital, the vernacular heritage struggles to interest the greatest number. Not far from the Marais, and in excellent condition, the Jean sans Peur tower is, like the Ourscamp house, one of the last vestiges of the capital’s rich medieval past. Open since 1999, but outside the major tourist circuits, it remains little known to the general public. Rémi Rivière, president of the association of archaeologists and historians who manages the monument, confides that he isvery difficult to sustain this small heritage, because there is a lot of trouble in being able to generate turnover“. After having tried throughout his career to open the Saint-Jacques tower, the Hermitage pavilion and the Throne barrier to the public, the former archaeologist notes with annoyance that it is sometimes more profitable to transform a monument into a café or to rent it for private events.The enhancement of this heritage is therefore in the hands of these enthusiasts who spare no effort.
/2023/02/09/63e52c40d62d7_tourjeansanspeur-2020.jpg)
Silent Destruction
Protecting vernacular heritage also means confronting a feeling of powerlessness. The new local urban plan presented by the City of Paris will make it possible to further protect the facades and the size of the buildings, which are sometimes victims of heightening. “The problem is that it does not protect the interiors“, warns Grégory Chaumet who deplores these hidden destructions.
A member of the Old Paris Commission, he deals with many files, including “place Iéna, a very beautiful building with sumptuous interiors. The owner wishes to make offices, which pushes him to want to destroy all the floors including a superb stairwell with stained glass windows dating from the end of the 19th century“. Difficult to preserve this heritage out of sight. “The only way to protect it would be classification or registration as a Historic Monument. But to register it, you would need the agreement of the owner (which he would refuse) and classification could take several years. Until then, many disasters can be made“, he notes, disarmed.