L’aqueduc du Gier à Lyon : la complexité de la protection au titre des monuments historiques

Abstract

Protection of French aqueducts, in particular of the ancient aqueducts of Lyon, through the Monuments historiques began concurrently alongside more general historical efforts toward protection.In 1830, François Guizot, a Minister appointed by Louis-Philippe I, created the department of the Inspection des monuments historiques. On October 23, 1830, Ludovic Vitet became the first inspector. In 1834, Prosper Mérimée succeeded L. Vitet. He then began to travel and draft reports about the country’s ancient buildings. This active approach led to the presentation in 1840 of the first list of ancient buildings requiring preservation. This list, covering French territory to that point, included the ancient aqueducts of Lyon, without specifying their belonging to a specific culvert. There were at least four emerging in Lyon. As with all of the other historical buildings, despite the interest aroused by the romantic ruins of the arches, which allowed for the aqueduct to become one of the precursors in the initial list, no protective laws were passed. The committee reports provide interesting descriptions such as the minutes of a commission meeting from November 1850, describing the Beaunant site in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon in. The following year, it was Mérimée himself who reported damages to the Gier aqueduct. Initial restoration work was voted in 1853 for the Beaunant siphon. The aqueducts suffered like many other buildings from the lack of authority and power accorded to the State. Aqueducts also suffered from the partial nature of their consideration, taking into account only the apparent elements. Indeed, these represent only avery small portion of these monuments compared to the underground sections.In March 1887, the first law concerning historical buildings was born, it only applied to public property buildings registered on the lists. Many aqueduct pieces were mentioned regularly in the commissions, but the Gier aqueduct was the subject of special treatment. The following events subsequent to the law of 1905, and the need for management of religious heritage, accelerated the creation of the December 31, 1913 law. To this day, owner consent remains a necessary legal step toward obtaining a classification of a monument. Inscription, a lower level of protection, is still decided regionally. This type of hierarch is essential to the evaluation of the intrinsic quality of a building, because monuments are not all equal. Furthermore, a simple decision about an ordinary building cannot be said to apply to aqueducts. Indeed, the Gier aqueduct, for example, crosses 2 departments, 21 towns and likely between 2,500 and 3,000 portions of it exist along its 86 kilometre course. As the aqueduct has never been considered in its entirety, only the visible and monumental elements were afforded protection over the years. Safeguarding in its strictest form (often meaning a classification of the monument, with decree signed by the Minister of Culture and publications to the Land Registry Service, along with owner agreement) requires precise determination of the position of the aqueduct, including underground, as well as within private properties. From the legislator’s point of view, this point hardly suffers from approximation.Main administrative authorities and easement:- Conservation régionale des monuments historique (CRMH): Office of National heritage and architecture, regional Ministry of Culture service, whose aim is to protect, conserve and restore historical buildings. - Commission nationale du patrimoine et de l’architecture (CNPA): Commission based in Paris whose members are appointed by decree every four years. It decides by vote if a building is eligible or not to become a monument historique classé (classified historical monument). If the vote is affirmative, a decree is submitted to the Minister. It has its regional counterpart, which deals with monument historique inscrit. To be accepted in the Paris commission, it is necessary to have the agreement of the regional commission.- Monument historique (MH): Building component or portion which presents enough historical and artistic value to qualify for a decree. In French, many people used this term incorrectly, forgetting the juridical bearing.- Servitude du monument historique: This decree creates an easement. It must be made public and registered to the land advertising service. This easement requires works to be authorized by the Conservation régionale and it generates surrounding surveys, during which efforts are monitored and controlled.