The Fondation Napoléon and the Institut Catholique d’Etudes Supérieurs (ICES), in partnership with the town of La Roche-sur-Yon, the Conseil général de la Vendée, and the Centre Vendéen de Recherche Historique (CVRH), created the Chaire Napoléon on the 3 December, 2014. By offering various activities to students and the general public, the Chaire is a complement to degree study courses on the Revolution and on the two Empires.

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With the ICES

The partnership will include a Study Day organised each year at the ICES, which will be reported on and published in Napoleonica.La Revue (in French), the Fondation Napoléon’s digital online review. Furthermore, there will be two or three annual lectures on offer for free, open to students and a wider public. The Fondation Napoleon’s Bibliothèque Martial-Lapeyre library will provide preferential treatment to ICES teachers and students, the letter being eligible to apply for the Study Grants given out each year by the Fondation Napoléon. Finally, the Fondation Napoléon will open its collections to the Napoleon Chair for exhibitions.

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An active region

The CVRH will bring support and a guarantee of academic excellence to the work carried out by the Chaire Napoléon, and will provide access to its network so as to facilitate contacts with the professors, lecturers and visiting speakers necessary for the continued activity and vitality of the Chaire Napoléon. The CVRH will be able to help the students with their research, and publish, after examination, their research in the form of articles in “Recherches vendéennes”; the best pieces of research will be put up for publication in book form. The town of La Roche-sur-Yon will include the activities initiated by the Chaire Napoléon in its programme of cultural activities, and will use its editorial resources for raising awareness of the Study Days and the lectures so that the town’s residents can access them. In the same way, the Conseil général de la Vendée will participate in promoting the cultural activities initiated by the Chaire Napoléon.

keep up to date with the calendar of events

You can subscribe to the Fondation Napoléon’s Weekly Newsletter (in French), follow the Fondation on Facebook and on Twitter. You can also have a look at the l’Institut catholique d’études supérieur’s website.

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A little bit of history…

The town of La Roche-sur-Yon’s interest in the History of the Consulat and the two Empires follows a strong historical tradition. In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte decided to transfer the administrative centre of the département of Fontenay-le-Compte to the small village of 600 inhabitants of La-Roche-Sur-Yon, a strategic position in the département’s very centre, an area feeling the full weight of ‘pacification’ after the war of Vendée. The town’s historic centre remains strongly marked by its original urban identity, laid out in military fashion during the Empire.