What Pôle d'interprétation de la Préhistoire does

The Pôle d'interprétation de la Préhistoire (also operating as Pôle International de la Préhistoire) is a publicly-funded French cultural interpretation center established in 2014 and headquartered at 30 rue du Moulin, Les Eyzies, in the Dordogne's Vézère valley. Its core function is to interpret, document, and disseminate prehistory to the general public, families, school groups, educators, and prehistory professionals through a combination of a free physical visitor center, rotating exhibitions (PaysÂges Vézère, Néandertal l'Expo, Expo Albert Kahn, Gestes de la Préhistoire in French/English/Spanish, and the co-produced Arpenter Révéler), and online resources including the Voir et écouter video platform, the Patrinum image catalog, the Mammouth youth documentary tool, and a documentary portal aggregating the Catalogue Collectif de la Préhistoire.

The technology stack is conventional for a cultural interpretation site: digital documentation systems powering virtual exhibitions, an image catalog, and recorded scientific conference archives, hosted on the pole-prehistoire.com Joomla-based CMS with Sendinblue for newsletter distribution. There are no disclosed AI/ML capabilities, proprietary models, or API surfaces. The underlying platform architecture is content-centric rather than technology-centric.

The business model is essentially non-commercial. General admission to the visitor center is free (entrée libre et gratuite), with revenue derived from a narrow set of paid activities — notably children's storytelling at €5 per child (ages 5–10, 1-hour sessions) and room rentals — plus a 2024 professional training program (Formation PREAC 2024). Operating sustainability is anchored in institutional public funding from the French State, Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Conseil Général de la Dordogne, the EU via FEADER 2021/2027, DREAL, and four local intercommunalities (EPCI) within the Grand Site de France Vallée Vézère framework.

Name

Pôle d'interprétation de la Préhistoire

Legal name

Pôle d'interprétation de la Préhistoire

Website

https://pole-prehistoire.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Les Eyzies

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Pricing tiers

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

The Pôle d'interprétation de la Préhistoire is a publicly funded cultural interpretation center located in Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France, providing free entry to exhibitions and educational programs on prehistory. It operates physical exhibitions (PaysÂges Vézère, Néandertal l'Expo, Expo Albert Kahn, Gestes de la Préhistoire), children's storytelling (€5 for ages 5–10), professional training (PREAC 2024), and digital documentation resources including the Patrinum image catalog, Mammouth youth tool, and the Portail documentaire / Médiathèque.

Product overview

Pôle d'interprétation de la Préhistoire operates as a cultural interpretation center offering a unified portfolio of services including a free visitor center with exhibitions, educational programs for various audiences (youth, teachers, professionals), and online digital resources. The core offerings consist of physical exhibitions such as PaysÂges Vézère, Néandertal l'Expo, Expo Albert Kahn, and Gestes de la Préhistoire (available in three languages), complemented by digital services including the Voir et écouter video platform, documentary portals (Médiathèque and Patrinum), and educational tools like Mammouth for youth. Additional services include children's storytelling, professional training (PREAC), room rentals, and the Grand Site de France initiative promoting sustainable tourism in the Vézère Valley.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• P@trinum: Image catalog of prehistory managed by the institution
• Mammouth
• Le Catalogue Collectif de la Préhistoire

Products and services

• Centre d'accueil des visiteurs (Visitor Center) The main visitor center located in Les Eyzies, offering free entry with reception services, information, and access to exhibitions and activities for the general public and families.
• Exhibition: PaysÂges Vézère Exhibition inviting visitors to explore the diversity of environments and landscapes bearing traces of human presence for nearly 450,000 years in the Vézère Valley.
• Exhibition: Néandertal l'Expo Exhibition dedicated to Neanderthal humans and their history, aimed at the general public visiting the center.
• Exhibition: Expo Albert Kahn Exhibition featuring the collections of Albert Kahn, banker and philanthropist known for his 'Archives of the Planet' photographic project, aimed at general visitors.
• Collection: Gestes de la Préhistoire Collection exploring prehistoric gestures and activities through interactive displays, available in French, English, and Spanish versions for international visitors.
• Exhibition: Arpenter Révéler - Art contemporain et territoires Contemporary art exhibition co-produced with Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, featuring works that interrogate themes of rural world, ecological situation, and territory. Running until 30 August 2026.
• Children's Storytelling - Les enfants de la Préhistoire Storytelling service for children ages 5–10 featuring tales about prehistoric children, conducted by storyteller Magaly. Priced at €5 for a 1-hour session.
• PREAC 2024 Professional Training Professional training program under the PREAC initiative for educators and cultural professionals seeking professional development in prehistory education.
• Activities at the Visitor Center (Activités au centre d'accueil) Activities and animations offered at the visitor center, including workshops and hands-on experiences such as Prehistolab for visitors of all ages.
• Online Resource: Voir et écouter (Watch and Listen) Digital platform providing access to recorded conferences and videos on prehistoric and scientific topics, available for public and professional audiences.
• Portail documentaire / Médiathèque Documentary portal providing access to the collective catalog of prehistory resources in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, used by teachers, researchers, and the public.
• Patrinum image catalog Image catalog of prehistory images managed by the institution, available for educational and research purposes.
• Mammouth documentary search tool Documentary search tool for youth audiences to explore prehistory-related educational content in an age-appropriate format.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCAcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Co-production partnership for the exhibition 'Arpenter Révéler - Art contemporain et territoires'. The exhibition includes works from the Frac collection and was previously presented at the MÉCA in Bordeaux in 2024.
• DREAL (Direction Régionale de l'Environnement, de l'Aménagement et du Logement)minorOthers · 1 January 2024Co-financing of 11,891.40€ for visitor study and research project as part of the Grand Site de France initiative.
• 4 EPCI du territoire Grand Site de FrancecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Co-financing of 2,972.85€ with 4 intercommunalities as part of the Grand Site de France Vallée Vézère territorial project.
• Conseil Général de la DordognecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMajor institutional partner and funder, logo displayed on website footer indicating departmental council support.
• Région Nouvelle-AquitainecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRegional council institutional partner, logo displayed on website footer indicating regional government support.
• État (French State)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFrench government institutional partner, logo displayed on website footer indicating state support.
• Comité Départemental du Tourisme de la DordogneminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in tourism data collection and visitor frequency management for the Grand Site de France Vallée Vézère.
• Offices de Tourisme du territoireminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNetwork of local tourism offices collaborating on visitor data and tourism promotion.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Cité de la Préhistoire (Orgnac-l'Aven): Regional prehistoric interpretation site in southern France offering exhibitions, audiovisual reconstructions and educational programs on the same topic.
• Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave replica: Replica-cave museum and exhibition centre dedicated to Chauvet Cave art, operating as a heritage interpretation venue with similar educational/visit missions.
• Musée national de Préhistoire (Les Eyzies): National prehistory museum co-located in Les Eyzies, sharing the same territorial catchment, prehistoric subject matter and institutional curation overlap.
• Lascaux – International Center of Cave Art: Major state-backed prehistoric interpretation centre in Montignac (Dordogne), directly competing for visitors and cultural-tourism mindshare within the same region and prehistoric theme.
• Musée de l'Homme (Paris): National museum of human anthropology including prehistoric displays; comparable exhibits on early humans and Neanderthals, drawing school and tourist audiences.
• Musée de Tautavel – Centre européen de préhistoire: European Prehistory Centre in Tautavel (Pyrénées-Orientales) delivering prehistoric exhibitions, research and educational activities with similar institutional model.

Broad incumbents

• Centre des monuments nationaux (CMN): State operator managing over 100 national monuments including prehistoric caves; relevant as a broader heritage-management incumbent under France's Ministry of Culture.
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: Major international natural-history museum whose human-origins galleries exhibit prehistoric content; relevant as a large-scale global benchmark for public education programming.
• Réunion des Musées Nationaux et du Grand Palais (RMN): Public cultural operator running bookstore/shop/agency services for French national museums, including commercial and exhibition-production partnerships overlapping with PIP's activities.

Regional players

• Musée d'Aquitaine (Bordeaux): Regional history museum in Nouvelle-Aquitaine sharing the same regional authority governance; comparable public-museum operations in the same administrative region.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/p%C3%B4le-d-interpr%C3%A9tation-de-la-pr%C3%A9histoire

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Pôle d'interprétation de la Préhistoire