Promotion of the Episcopal city
Cité épiscopale d’Albi
During the Enlightenment the navigator Jean-François Galaup de Lapérouse, a native of Albi, was chosen to lead a great scientific expeditions around the world.
Three centuries later, many of Albi’s people follow in his footsteps through international exchanges, showing the same sensitivity to cultural exchange.
This reflects the people of Albi’s desire to better understand their history and their heritage and to open their heritage to others. One of the essential aims of the management plan is to promote the universal values of UNESCO, echoing Lapérouse’s philosophy of the voyage of discovery.
Respect between people and communities is founded upon the knowledge of the other and their culture. Peace is nourished by the contacts between communities and the exchanges between human beings and their cultures.
The Episcopal city’s inclusion on UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites reminds us that this site belongs not just to the people of Albi but to the whole of humanity.
Successfully promoting the Episcopal city means attaining ambitious objectives regarding communication which rest on recognition, promotion, and an engagement with the site’s exceptional heritage.
Both the people of Albi and the town’s visitors recognise the force and the originality of this living city whose integrity has been preserved through the centuries, however few dispose of the key to fully comprehend the richness of such a site.
Beyond the presentation to visitors and local residents, through the Episcopal city Albi seeks to:
- explain the exceptional universal value of the site
- promote UNESCO’s values and demonstrate the universality of our heritage as belonging equally to all peoples
- encourage the participation of the decision makers of tomorrow in the conservation of their heritage.
This programme of cultural and scientific communication must, through teaching and through play, constantly renew itself, making use of the most modern and innovative technologies.
The historical, artistic and technical elements of the buildings of the Episcopal city are the material which will allow us to achieve these objectives.
