“Heritage Map”, the new application made in Aveyron, ideal for (re)discovering monuments throughout France

Gregory Alary developed his application in his free time out of passion and curiosity. D.R

The “Heritage Map” application offers an easy-to-use interface. D.R

The young Aveyronnais Grégory Alary developed this application called "Heritage Map" allowing, in a few clicks on his smartphone, to locate with simple and practical information more than 45,000 monuments throughout France.

Aveyronnais and proud of it – “I am from Séverac l'Église next to Laissac”– Grégory Alary studied computer science. First at IUT in Rodez then in Toulouse for a degree followed by a master's degree. “I then worked at Verdié voyages before investing in a web and mobile developer activity between Montpellier and Aveyron.” An already substantial CV that allowed the young man, in his free time, to create an application called “Heritage Map”. “I would say that the initial desire came from frustration. I was looking for something that could show me, in a precise and practical way, the monuments to discover. It didn't exist.”

45,000 monuments from all over France

Without a moment's hesitation, the computer scientist relied on available databases, particularly those of the Ministry of Culture, to compile more than 45,000 public and private monuments throughout France, including more than 400 in Aveyron. “It's almost a selfish pleasure at first…” smiles Gregory. “This passion project spanned more than a year of research and development. All alone. There was a lot of work to ensure that the data was usable. Especially on royalty-free photos. Not to mention open street map data to refine the GPS coordinates of monuments.”

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A Benedictine task with, also, the discovery of a know-how: that of models and interface design. “Normally this is not at all my job.” Concerned with constantly improving the final result, Gregory confesses that the adventure was long.“I started putting the application on the stores in September 2023 with the idea that the first users would report any bugs to me. But communication really started at the end of last summer.” A latency period of almost a year that allowed us to enrich, complete, and clarify the maps and information.

Available in five languages ​​on Android and IOS

“There was work to filter the monuments by type of construction and period. The last step involved translating the application into several languages: French of course, but also German, English, Spanish, and Italian. With each version, all the information on each monument is translated.” All this available for free on Android and IOS. “There are more downloads on Android, about 1500 and a thousand on Iphone”.

“Websites offer something similar, like the one called Monumentum which has included the entire official list of French historical monuments since 2012. But I haven't found any application equivalent to the one I developed. Otherwise I would have abstained!” (smile). For each of the approximately 45,000 monuments, the application offers a precise location, a photo, historical elements with a description. “There is also a status indicating whether the site is public or private. Users can also configure the application to only see public monuments. You can combine by searching only for public castles from the Middle Ages or only Romanesque churches.”

A lot of consultations located in the south

Grégory admits “a large pole of consultations located towards the south of France. Particularly towards Toulouse and Montpellier. In Aveyron, it is the dolmens that are very popular… Because there are so many of them. This is probably explained by the use of the “around” function. of me”. The Sainte-Foy abbey church in Conques and the pilgrims' bridge also in Conques. Not forgetting the ramparts of La Couvertoirade and many monuments in the Tarn gorges like the church of Rozier.” But no Millau Viaduct! “The most recent listed monuments date from the middle of the 20th century.”

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