This project deals with the historical and contemporary challenges surrounding the valorisation of aristocratic heritage in Europe, using the British case as its main reference point. It begins with the initiative of the European Historic Houses association, which seeks to promote the role of private owners in preserving historic residences, while also advocating for institutional recognition and tax advantages. This approach differs from that of organisations such as the National Trust, which has historically favoured a more collective management of heritage but is now facing debates over memory, particularly concerning the legacies of colonialism and slavery.
In the British Isles, large landed estates occupy a central place in public debates, unlike in continental Europe where the issue has long remained more discreet. However, post-1989 privatisations and the growth of tourism have increased their attractiveness, while also generating tensions between accessibility, profitability, and preservation.
The project aims at constructing a comparative and interdisciplinary European approach to better understand this heritage, at the intersection of history, tourism, and economics. It outlines the main stages in its development in Britain: the formation of estates from the seventeenth century through enclosures, the assertion of aristocratic cultural power, their gradual opening to the public in the nineteenth century, and finally their crisis and transformation in the twentieth century within the framework of the “heritage industry.”
Today, these estates lie at the heart of debates on memory, social inequality, and the use of rural space. The project thus argues for the relevance of the British model as a means of rethinking, on a European scale, the place of aristocratic heritage in contemporary societies.