Our association

Who are we? 

The REMPART union was created in 1966. It has more than 180 local associations that preserve and promote heritage throughout France. These associations are working on a very wide range of historical sites (chapel, castles, houses, but also lime kilns or wash houses). Most of these associations organise volunteer workcamps or training courses to offer heritage restoration projects to everybody. More than 3 500 French and foreign volunteers are involved each year in its activities.

The REMPART associations do not only preserve and restore sites: they reuse and redevelop them to contribute to the local development. This way, a ruin may become a live venue, and a rural house a gite.

To raise awareness of the general public to the heritage is important for REMPART and its associations. That is why they organise heritage classes, or publish heritage and technical books.

The actions of REMPART and its associations are generally supported by partners such as the Ministries of Culture, Youth, Environment or Social Affairs, as well as by local authorities.

REMPART heritage workcamps rely almost exclusively on volunteering. The workcamp organizers, and particularly the member associations, must ensure that their actions are of the highest quality: quality of the restorations offered, quality of the hosting provided for volunteers, quality of the associative projects.

In the course of these last thirty years, a real REMPART label has been established, founded on the coherence and quality of the activities of the REMPART union, the training policy for the workcamp organizers, and the assessments and analysis carried out on a local or national scale. The REMPART label does not only refer to the restoration works: the REMPART workcamps and associations are also a factor of development, social bond and intercultural exchange that strengthen the social fabric.