Highlighting rural heritage with Petites Cités de Caractère® (Small Cities of Character)

Label Petites Cités de Caractère®

The concept of Petites Cités de CaractèreⓇ (Small Towns of Character), created in Brittany in 1975, was born of the desire to bring together a network of towns with a remarkable heritage and a desire to safeguard it.

Petites Cités de Caractère® enhances the living environment

Through the national charter signed in 2009, the Petites Cités de CaractèreⓇ aim to safeguard, restore and maintain local heritage, enhance it, animate it and promote it to residents and visitors, in order to participate in the economic development of the territories.

The Petites Cités de CaractèreⓇ brand was developed in Haute-Vienne from 2016 on the initiative of the town of Le Dorat and the support of Haute-Vienne Tourisme. Subsequently, Haute-Vienne Tourisme is pursuing the mission of developing the brand throughout the département. Discussions are underway with the town of Eymoutiers to begin the award procedure in 2017.

A charter and membership conditions

A CHARTER TO UNITE “PETITES CITÉS DE CARACTÈRE®” (SMALL TOWNS OF CHARACTER)

The charter consists of two parts: prerequisite admission criteria and some 30 commitments. The notion of commitment is fundamental: this is not an evaluation process, but one of accompaniment. Petits Cités de Caractère® qualifies a process, not a result.

First criterion: what is a “cité”?

The term “cité” is used to describe a number of specific characteristics of a Petite Cité de Caractère:

an urban heritage,
an urban history, a city history,
a place of culture, history and heritage,
a place of contemporary life, with around 6,000 inhabitants,
a local policy that draws on this heritage to build a development project,
an invitation to discover this remarkable heritage.

Second criterion: protected heritage

One of the strengths of Petits Cités de Caractère® is that it mobilizes a technical partnership around elected officials. To apply, a commune must benefit from a protection regime (MH protection, or a ZPPAUP/ AVAP/PVAP, or a PSMV). These urban planning documents focusing on heritage issues are required to become a PCC (at the end of 2015, 116 PCC, => 97 ZPPAUP / AVAP).

Third criterion: a multi-year enhancement program

The municipality must have a global, multi-year project for its heritage. This criterion ranges from a simple roadmap for the next five years, to the PAP (Heritage Development Plan).

Commitments to :