The Centre des Monuments Nationaux is a public administration run by the Ministry for Culture and Communication.

It conserves, restores, and manages nearly 100 national monuments belonging to the State, staffing their sites and opening them to the public. Among the monuments for which it is responsible are the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel, the château d’Angers and château d’Azay-le-Rideau, the château and ramparts of the city of Carcassonne, the Arc de triomphe and the Sainte-Chapelle. All the abbeys, châteaux, prehistoric caves, archaeological sites, and so on are examples of the diversity and wealth of the heritage of France throughout the ages.

The mission of the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, in its capacity as managing authority, is to ensure the conservation, restoration and upkeep of the monuments placed under its responsibility, and to enhance them, make them as accessible as possible to the general public, and see to it that visitors receive high quality service. By organising nearly 200 events each year in conjunction with regional cultural authorities, local authorities and cultural institute networks, it ensures the national monuments contribute to cultural life and the development of tourism.

In addition, the mission of the Centre des Monuments Nationaux includes acting as official publishing house under the name Éditions du patrimoine. It thus makes a major contribution to promoting and increasing knowledge about the heritage by publishing visit guides, high-quality illustrated books (both photographic works and books for the general public), monographs about architects or buildings, theoretical, technical and scientific texts, children’s books, and works for the blind, visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing.

The Centre des Monuments Nationaux has a staff of 1313 full-time and seasonal employees working for the public. Its total annual budget for 2009 is 120 million Euros, mostly derived from its own resources (ticket fees, renting out venues, income from stores and from the sale of Éditions du patrimoine publications, donors), but it also receives a subsidy from the Ministry of Culture and Communication, over three-quarters of which is for upkeep and restoration, as part of the Centre’s new capacity as managing authority. Nearly 8.5 million people visited the monuments for which it is responsible in 2008.

Centre des monuments nationaux
Hôtel de Sully
62, rue Saint-Antoine
75186 Paris cedex 04
Téléphone : 01 44 61 20 00