UNESCO Application
One ambition, an application for UNESCO World Heritage classification
In 1995, France retained on its indicative list of proposals for World Heritage status the fortifications of the North of France, corresponding to the former domain of Vauban. The regional association of fortified towns in the Nord Pas de Calais area, supported by the CAUE du Nord and its « urban culture » workshop, will provide the necessary drive to commence initial deliberation on this application. It will then direct the application towards a transnational dimension by utilising the opportunity of the Septentrion project, rightfully managed by the Department of the Nord with regard to its policy and action to promote the enrichment of this heritage.
This consists of presenting the cultural territory of the North-Western plain of Europe, outlined by a dense network of former fortified towns, that is testimony to a specific fortified identity, created in the North of France, Belgium and the Southern Netherlands. This area represents an urban eco-system with an exceptional universal value that must be promoted to highlight its great riches so as to ensure a future that lives up to its impressive past.
A European heritage to promote on a global scale
The process aims to be innovative in its approach and its scope;
- It must allow the singular heritage of fortified towns to fall in line with the concerns of contemporary towns and the issues in terms of town planning, by taking into account cultural, landscape and environmental dimensions relating directly to the way of life of its inhabitants and compatible with the stated objectives of sustainable development. It must also find the means to fully involve the local population.
- In terms of the historical and scientific arguments, this territory presents a structure and special heritage features that are of an exemplary and representative value.
This constitutes a vast « border area » whose only other natural barrier is the sea, located at the crossroads of the great European powers, which can be defined as the « Europe's battlefield » and which is now a privileged home to the construction site of a peaceful Europe.
In the 16th and 17th Centuries, this area of high geopolitical stakes became the major zone of experimentation in the art of war and fortification applied to towns, with the organisation of technical know-how on a grand scale, which benefited military engineering, theoretical treatise and new urban models, imported from Italy amongst other countries. The tests conducted in the modern era in this territory are the foundation of a model of exportation of colonial fortified towns, notably in the New World. The sustainable experience on a homogenous territory (physical geography), affecting both the defence designs and urban structures, benefiting the development of a system of theoretical models, is an exceptional example on a world scale.
This model of European town that combines tradition, confrontation and innovation is therefore to be supported and promoted on a global scale through the Unesco Label.
