Un patrimoine caché : l’héritage de la guerre des mines à Arras

Abstract

The underground galleries and earthworks that are vestiges of the bitter combats in no man’s land during the First World War were generally closed up and forgotten at the end of the conflict. They were not seen as having any heritage value and were not protected. Today they continue to deteriorate and erode, often causing subsidence in villages. More important underground sites, however, such as the one at Arras (Pas-de-Calais) representing a real town beneath the surface town show greater potential. Right from the end of the First World War, it was exploited for battlefield tourism. Through the example of this site at Arras, the article explores some of the features of this hidden heritage and examines its difficult present-day management, hesitating between projects for interpretation and tourist visits and projects for an underground shelter.

Keywords

• military heritage
• Arras
• Great War
• underground quarries
• mining wars
• sapping