67.400 unprotected monuments are in a "critical condition", according to the Heritage Foundation

This initiative is being launched on the occasion of the European Heritage Days taking place this weekend, "with the Ministry of Culture and the main heritage preservation associations," the foundation told AFP.

The observatory will provide "a regularly updated collaborative (data) base as well as key indicators" in order to "alert and mobilize decision-makers and the general public on the nature and extent of the needs related to this heritage," the Heritage Foundation stated in a press release.

According to a census carried out on September 1, out of "approximately 295.800 heritage monuments not protected as historic monuments, approximately 67.400 are in a critical condition," that is to say, "in poor condition" or "in danger," the text details.

The foundation also lists 46.150 protected monuments, which brings its inventory to approximately 341.950 monuments, a "non-exhaustive" census but which provides "a robust and prudent order of magnitude".

This census was carried out by the Heritage Foundation using its own database, the general inventory of cultural heritage, the religious heritage observatory and OpenStreetMap, a global collaborative map created and enriched by volunteer contributors.

Unprotected heritage is defined as "all buildings, public or private, which do not benefit from classification or registration as historic monuments, but which are of interest from an architectural, historical, landscape or collective memory point of view."