Our Activities: Programs, Field Work & 2026 Calendar

Following the destruction of over ninety percent of the city during the First World War, Chauny was masterfully rebuilt during the 1920s into a textbook model of modern interwar urban design. Our taskforce conducts meticulous parcel-by-parcel surveys documenting Art Deco wrought-iron grilles, mosaic pediments, geometric concrete lintels, and civic edifices. We collaborate with homeowners to advise on historic color palettes and materials before energy restoration works commence.

Community Impact: Over 480 individual properties documented, six public heritage walking routes created, and comprehensive advisory files submitted to communal urban planning directors to prevent the destruction of irreplaceable decorative details.

Inland navigation made Chauny a flourishing fluvial hub for more than two centuries. Our Fluvial Heritage Initiative records high-fidelity oral histories with retired boat captains, lockkeepers, and harbor laborers who operated along the Saint-Quentin and Sambre-to-Oise canals. In addition to audio interviews, we collect and digitize personal navigation logbooks, union permits, and photographs of early 20th-century steam tugs.

Community Impact: Eighty-four hours of broadcast-quality oral interviews safely deposited with regional archives, two traveling photographic exhibitions deployed in canal-side towns, and free public educational booklets distributed to families along the river towpaths.

We believe that heritage education must take root in childhood. Our volunteer educators visit primary and secondary classrooms throughout the Communauté d’Agglomération Chauny-Tergnier-La Fère to deliver interactive history sessions. Using touchable artifact replicas, stereoscopic vintage viewers, and blank architectural sketches, students learn to interpret the buildings they walk past every day on their way to school.

Community Impact: More than 1,200 school children actively engaged each academic year across twelve educational establishments, culminating in student-curated heritage posters presented at our annual youth civic showcase.

Tangible history requires physical care. Our weekend working parties bring together volunteers of all ages to clear overgrowth around forgotten rural boundary stones, clean historic cemetery monuments of notable regional figures, and restore historic enamel street plaques. All manual operations are carried out under the guidance of conservation experts using non-destructive, lime-based and manual cleaning techniques.

Community Impact: Nineteen historic milestones and boundary stones restored along ancient postal routes, twelve cemetery commemorative plaques conserved, and over 1,500 hours of civic volunteer engagement generated.