Nova Scotia
Name of country: CANADA
List drawn up by:
Parks Canada Agency
25 Eddy Street
Gatineau (Quebec) K1A 0M5
Date: March 2004
NAME OF PROPERTY
GRAND-PRÉ
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
NOVA SCOTIA 45,12°N B 64,32°W
DESCRIPTION:
Grand-Pré is the symbolic centre of the homeland of the Acadian people and the principal lieu de la mémoire acadienne. Here they transformed millennia-old tidal salt marshes into fertile farmland, the granary of Acadie. The tragic deportation of the Acadians in 1755 from the lands they had physically created through hard work and ingenuity is marked by the memorial chapel (1922-1930), the Deportation Cross (1924), the bronze statue of Evangeline, the heroine of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's romantic poem Evangeline (1920), and other monuments. Below-ground archaeological remains also represent the occupation and the collective memory. The area still bears the distinct settlement and land use patterns of dyked marshlands, uplands, and forest rising from the bay that identified their prosperous agricultural settlement from 1682 to 1755, as well as vestiges of the unique Acadian adaptation of 17th-century French dyking practice to the salt marshlands. The overlay of cultural resources reflecting the deliberate settlement of New England Planters on the Acadian lands immediately after The Deportation remains visible.
JUSTIFICATION OF "OUTSTANDING UNIVERSAL VALUE"
Criteria met:
(iii) Grand-Pré is an exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition as expressed in the persistent settlement and land use patterns created by the Acadians;
(iv) It is an outstanding example of a landscape which represents the impact of the European Clash of Empires of the 17th century and first half of the 18th century on a colonial people;
(vi) The Deportation is an event of outstanding universal significance in its effects on peoples in North America, France, and most particularly the ongoing Acadian community.
Assurances of authenticity and/or integrity:
The absence of authenticated above-ground built resources, and the survival of below-ground evidence, of the pre-deportation era in Grand-Pré National Historic Site of Canada and the surrounding landscape speak to the impact of the expulsion, when the farmsteads were burned. The high integrity of the Acadian land use/settlement pattern, the overlay of Planter cultural resources, and the continuity of family farming define the evolved continuing landscape. Parks Canada manages Grand-Pré National Historic Site of Canada. The adjacent rural historic district is designated as a National Historic Site of Canada but not formally protected.
Comparison with other similar properties:
Grand-Pré is the spiritual and emotional centre of Acadian history and the only significant area of early Acadian settlement in the Minas district not urbanized. Other significant Acadian sites in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick do not compare in time span or as lieux de la mémoire acadienne. Acadian sites in Louisiana, USA, can represent only the life of Acadians after The Deportation and not in their homeland.