This new site was launched by the Mayor, Yann Jaccaz, at the presentation ceremony of his New Year wishes to the population. “It was an excellent occasion to do it on that day, as many inhabitants of Praz were present”, explained the Mayor. “In fact it worked very well as lots of people were talking about it afterwards and the public was very enthusiastic after seeing the many photos.”

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the village in 2007, the Tourist Office organized a collection of old photos. However, they weren’t used again after that. “It’s a magnificent treasure that we have, we just had to show it to the larger public in some way”, said the Mayor.

So, shortly after creating the Town Hall Facebook site, the municipality also set up a  Local History Facebook site. “The idea is to regularly publish articles about our heritage and our past, and put online archive documents and photos. This way people can comment on each article and photo. It’s an opportunity for the inhabitants to reconstitute our history because we have many photos in which it is difficult for us to identify people and dates. In the long run, this could lead to the publication of a book. I hope that it might also encouage family discussions. It’s mostly the young who are on Facebook. If this new site leads to discussions with their elders, and sharing of memories triggered by old photos, we will have created a wonderful inter-generational tool.”

Click here to see the new “History of Praz” Facebook site”