MMIAH - Blog

Recovery and valorization of maritime, military and industrial heritage of the Atlantic Area coast.

Best Practices: Ville de La Rochelle 

The City of La Rochelle has a long and rich maritime history, heavily influenced by trade, fishing and its former position as a Protestant stronghold. In the past and in the present, the successive ports in La Rochelle largely contributed to the development of the city and paced the life of the people living here, between land and sea.

This city of France has decided to participate on the MMIAH Project best practice with three ventures relevant in the maritime sector:

    • The Maritime Museum
    • La Sirène
    • Space Encan

The Maritime Museum was born in 1988 under the initiative of protecting La Rochelle’s maritime heritage, therefore, the city purchased the France I, a meteorological frigate that had been given to a nonprofit association to turn it into a maritime museum, however, in 2008 the museum has been directly managed by the city.

The France I features exhibit on life on board meteorology and emblematic ships of the human adventure. This frigate is very important because it’s considered as a historical monument as well as hosting a bar that’s run by a private company in charge or organising musical entertainment, opening a brewery section on the former Encan.

Nowadays the Maritime Museum is developing many exhibits on the France I so that visitors can experience life on board on a meteorological ship.

As to La Sirène, this building used to be a grain silo that was recently reconverted into a concert hall. The grain silo was constructed in the 1920’s and immediately became the warehouse for a very important company specialised in grains and exportation of rice to other countries from different continents. In 2011 it was remodelled with the purpose of transforming into a concert hall in order to contributing old buildings to be used for cultural and nonprofit initiatives. Many of the building’s original features were kept to preserve the industrial aspect of the design.

Las but not least, their last approach was the Espace Encan, a space that went from being the Fish Market to the Convention Center. Built in 1956 and in 2000 was transformed into a convention center to welcome large events and to make of La Rochelle a preferred business travel destination. The layout of the forecourt helps integrate the Encan in the urban area to recreate a lively and entertaining space around the docks of the basin.