Roofers, ornamentalists and the UNESCO

WHAT IS THE UNESCO’S INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE?

What is meant by "cultural heritage" has changed considerably in recent decades, partly as a result of the instruments developed by the UNESCO.

Cultural heritage does not stop at monuments and collections of objects. It also includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, or the knowledge and skills necessary for traditional crafts.

WHY THE ROOFS OF PARIS?

The roofs of Paris, but more particularly the zinc roofs, cover more than 70% of the buildings in the French capital and give Paris those thousand shades of gray, which to this day, inspire painters, photographers, filmmakers, advertisers, writers, etc.

These skills and trades give Paris its visual identity: no other city in the world has such a sea of zinc roofs.

To be considered for UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage, strict and specific criteria must be met. Among other things, you must defend a know-how linked to a place. The Parisian roofers and ornamentalists have been chosen to represent all the professions.

All the roofers and ornamentalists of France are embarked in this quest for the recognition of their historical know-how and Paris is their flagship!

Let's support them!

THE ROOFS OF PARIS’ HISTORY

In the Middle Ages: Paris was a wooden city.
At the dawn of the Renaissance: Paris was covered with flat tiles and slates.
The Paris of the Grand Siècle: He didn't like Paris, yet he was one of its greatest urban planners! Louis XIV enters the great century with the masters of classical architecture.
Baron Haussmann's Zinc: Napoleon III wants to master the capital. He dreams of an ideal city, of a unified, organized, embellished, and healthy Paris, with a population that breathes more easily. Napoleon III entrusts this gigantic task of concretizing his dream to Baron Haussmann, the Seine region’s commissioner. 17 years of work were necessary to remodel Paris from top to bottom.

THE UNESCO CANDIDACY

Official dates of the application
After being registered in the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Assets (June 27, 2017), the application file "The skills of Parisian roofers and ornamentalists" was validated and registered, on October 20, 2020, by the Committee of Ethnological and Intangible Heritage of the Ministry of Culture (CPEI).

This validation allows, once again, to be among the candidates who could represent France in the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO, in 2021-2022. The final choice of the candidate (3 candidates presented this year) will depend on the arbitration of the Minister of Culture. An answer at the end of March is expected. The official inscription on the representative list will take place at the end of 2022.

Source article : Book "les toits de Paris ou l'Art des Couvreurs" - Gilles Mermet and press kit : Les Couvreurs à L'UNESCO