Royal saltworks of Arc-and-Senans

The royal saltworks of Arc-and-Senans located on the commune of Arc-and-Senans (Doubs) are a work of Claude Nicolas Ledoux, celebrates architect visionary. The purpose of it was the production of salt, and was to replace the growing old saltworks of Saline-the-Baths and Lons-the-Salt maker.

Context at the 18th century

At that time, the salt was used for the conservation of certain food like the meat or fish. It was thus for this reason a relatively essential food product. A tax was based on its consumption, the Gabelle, and was perceived by the general Ferme. The Franche-Comté was an area relatively rich in layers of rock salt in its basement. Consequently, one found many wells salted from which one extracted salt by boiling in boilers heated with the wood. One found at the time of many wells with Saline-the-Baths and Montmorot. One had built the boilers close to these wells and one brought the wood of the close forests. However, after many years of exploitation, these forests were impoverished more and more quickly, and the fuel was consequently to traverse increasingly important distances to be conveyed, which cost money more and more. Moreover, with the passing of years, the content salt of the brine decreased. During one period, the experts of the King even sought to exploit “small water”, but this was stopped by a stop of the council of the King in April 1773. Lastly, the construction of a Cooling tower was impossible, because of position of Saline-the-Baths in a small valley, which was not adequate.

Construction and its decision

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux was named “Police chief with the saltworks of Lorraine and Franche-Comté” the September 20th 1771 by Louis XV. In 1773, {{Mrs.}} of Barry supports its nomination as a member of the royal Academy of architecture, which makes it possible Claude-Nicolas Ledoux to carry the title of Architect of the King because he was already before architect of the general Ferme. Thus the construction of the royal saltworks of Arc-and-Senans is entrusted to Ledoux.

As a Police chief, it has the role of inspecting the various saltworks of the east of France. This will enable him to forge an opinion as for the aspect of an effective factory. This reflection allowed to him to set up a first project, before even as Louis XV does not make him the request of it. It was inspired without-doubt by the other saltworks of the area, and in particular those of Saline-the-Baths and Lons-the-Salt maker.

The first project

Before even receiving a request on behalf of the king, Ledoux board on a project of saltworks. It does not have any idea of the topography of the place where these saltworks would be carried out, nor no indication. Ledoux will thus leave free court to its imagination, not having to free itself from unspecified difficulties. This project will be presented in April 1774 to the king Louis XV.

Ledoux will see large in this first project: it is an ambitious project, innovator and breaking with traditional constructions. Indeed, before, constructions and the buildings are not bound, they are built in a scattered way. Ledoux breaks by setting up a made project of a geometry relentless: the enclosure is organized around an immense square place. The various buildings are placed all around this court, connected by Portique S. Ainsi, it has to some extent only one single building there. In the same way, so “accelerating the services”, the court is cut out in diagonal by covered galleries, forming a sheltered circulation of octagonal form. The buildings were to be made many columns, as well as the covered galleries which were to be constant by 144 doric columns.

The central square court was intended for the storage of the wood of heating of the saltworks. One could find on the level of the corners and the center of each side of the square houses of two stages. They sheltered the functions vital and necessary to the operation of the saltworks: body of guard, vault and bakery in front; workshops of marshal-shoeing and wet coopers were on the wings; and finally the factory was at the bottom. There were also gardens all around manufacture, intended to bring a complement of wages to the employees, as well as an imposing wall in order to protect the saltworks from the flights.

It is precisely this imposing and luxurious vision which will lead this project to the failure: no industrial building of the time was so imposing, which astonished the contemporaries by Ledoux. The king will refuse the project, while specifying: Why as well columns, they is not appropriate as for the temples and the palates of the kings . In the same way, it was shocking at the time placing a vault in a corner.

Later, Ledoux will make a self-criticism of this project: it is especially becomes heavy on “the needs and suitabilities of a productive factory”, with the detriment of symbolism. The project has a bilateral symmetry, which is relatively flat and uniform, to the detriment of a symbolic system of mass, more marked much.

The plan was copied overall on the traditional Community dwellings of the time: hospitals, convents, large firm… Moreover, one square plan had defects put in front of Antiquity by the Roman architect Vitruve: such a plan supported the propagation of the fires, was relatively not very hygienic and the court inevitably had one of these parts shaded during the day.

It was as reproached Ledoux as the project did not answer the geographical and geological constraints, it what it answered: A leaflet dictated by agents subordinates, which prepare the darkness of the decisions, had circumscribed work. Such is the despotism of delegated of Plutus, they pass part of the day to cut their feathers, the other to neutralize ink that they contiennent

The official decision

The decision to build the new saltworks was made by a stop of the Council of the April 29th 1773. The place of the construction of the saltworks was defined by a technical commission indicated by the general farm: it will be between the villages of Arc and Senans. This site was of several interests: it was a released plain, located near the Loue and of the royal forest of Lime, forest of more than 40.000 Arpent S. Moreover, it was in the center of the continent: it could communicate with the the Mediterranean by the channel of Dole, and with the the North Sea and the port of Antwerp by the the Rhine. Lastly, the Suisse was relatively close, which was at the time an important asset because of strong demand of this salt country.

The project envisaged the production of approximately 60.000 quintals of salt per annum, which represented approximately 100.000 tons of water to be evaporated per annum at a rate of a concentration of 30 grams salt per liter of brine.

The project of construction will be validated by Louis XV the April 27th 1774, little time before dying the May 10th 1774. In 1773, the king, in money search, inserts in the “general Handling of the Saltworks” a company of contractors to which it was granted an authorization of 24 years exploitation. This company, directed by Jean-Russet-red Monclar, had financial wills and thus of profitability. Thus the contractor refused the first project suggested by Ledoux. The project of construction approved by the king thus entrusted and the financing and the construction of the saltworks to the Jean-Russet-red contractor Monclar, in exchange of the authorization of exploitation which was granted to him. Claude-Nicolas Ledoux will benefit from the questioning of its first project to introduce a deeply different second of it.

The layout plan of the project was signed by Trudaine the October 28th 1774.

Construction

The building site and the construction of the saltworks are badly indicated by the files. The acquisition of the grounds and the earthworks were done little time afterwards.

The first stone was posed at the time of a ceremony on April 15th 1775, day of the Easter Saturday and work continued until in 1779. This thus indicated, like it wants the habit, that the carcass work heavy castings and the foundations were already established.

The carcass work heavy castings were quickly carried out, and the first tests of manufacture began as of the autumn 1778, in spite of the fact that certain interiors are not completely finished.

As stipulated it the contract signed between Mr. Monclar and the general farm, the exploitation of the saltworks began in 1779.

The highway network neighborhood was studied by young trainees sent by the National school of the Highways Departments. The road connecting the villages of Arc and Senans was slowly empierrée by labor corvéable at mercy. Moreover, this road ensuring of important outlets towards the Swiss , the Monclar contractor placed at the disposal of the Highways Departments diggers of the saltworks lasting the winter months. According to the farmer general Haudry, the expenditure was double compared to the forecasts as of 1778.

Architecture

The saumoduc

In order to supply the saltworks in “small water” since the wells of Saline-the-Baths, a Saumoduc was built. It formed a double drain in Sapin, long 21 kilometers, which crossed hills, roads and forests, while following the course of Furious and of Loue. This drain was buried in order to make it less vulnerable to the damage time, gel and plunderers.

In order to more strongly make safe it, 10 guardrooms were built along the layout of the saumoduc, thus forming the “way of the Gabelou S”. The flow and the content salt of the brine were measured at each station, and the results were raised each Saturday and were carried to the saltworks. The gabelous were at the time of the customs officers responsible for the trade for salt, and thus person in charge of the Gabelle. They were to face “salt-smugglers”, who bored the drains in order to recover part of the liquid charged with salt.

The saumoduc followed the declivity of the ground (143 meters of uneven), and was formed by trunks of fir trees cut in the shape of pencils to encase itself easily, and whose heart had been hollow using a Tarrière. The fir trees were selected because of their big size, and also because of relative tenderness of their heart. These trunks of hollow fir trees were called “bourneaux”. The fitment of the trunks hollowed out between them was to be solidified thanks to the use of “iron hoops”. In spite of the many work carried out without interruption on the saumoduc, of many cracks appeared, which involved many escapes (expensive work was carried out on one of the drains while the other ensured the transport of the brine). They were estimated at 30%. Thus, of the 135.000 liters brine sent daily since Saline, a considerable part was lost. Starting from 1788, the conduits out of wooden were gradually replaced by cast iron conduits. One finds still today along this way the post office of the Small Thatched cottage, the second after Saline-the-Baths.

Buildings

The cooling tower and the basin

The Cooling tower was destroyed in 1920. It aimed at the time increasing the salt concentration of the Saumure by evaporation. It at the time was made of an immense framework open out of wooden, long 496 meters, high 7 meters, which allowed the passage of the wind. One found with 5 meters height a bored pipe of holes which let escape the salt water which could then be spread on very many faggots of spines. An evaporation took place then and was facilitated by the passage of the wind. Each drop of Saumure was then collected by a beam of slightly leaning grooved fir tree. This process was repeated several times in order to increase the salinity of the brine until obtaining a salinity of approximately 24 degrees. It is at this time that the brine was then directed in immense a 5 depth basin and capacity meters of 200.000 liters (either 200 m ³). This basin was covered with a glaze of 2000 m ³, and was accompanied by a guardroom.

The building of the guards

They are splendid buildings with doric columns located close them entered to be able to control them. They had ornaments and not chimneys as the remainder of the saltworks. They were very roomy and luxurious. Ledoux attached much importance to that because for him the protection of the saltworks was capital against possible foreign attacks.

The house of the director

Stables

Buildings of the clerks and the gabelle one

Bernes

Berniers

Marechalery and cooperage

Gardens

Style and symbolic system

Ledoux conceived the architectural whole in the form of half-circle (370 m diameter), including/understanding the technical installations and the residences of the workmen.

The house of the director with his pediment in the shape of peristyle imposed a certain idea of the order. She points out the villa Rotonda of Palladio, close to Vicence (Italy).

Imprisoned under the Revolution, Ledoux imagines the ideal Cité Lime, which was to surround the saltworks, project which will remain in the paperboards of the architect fallen in disgrace.

Life of the saltworks

Life after salt

The périclita activity because the output was not that discounted. The competition of sea salt conveyed by Railroad and the pollution of the well feeding the village of Arc brought the closing of the saltworks in 1895, which supported its ruin. A fire was declared in 1918 in the house of the director and the vault following fallen from the Foudre.

In 1923, the Art schools express the wish to see classified with the historic buildings of the area the central house and the gate of entry. After a long instruction, a favorable decision is returned the February 30th, 1926 by the commission of the Monuments. The Company of the Saltworks of the East, then at the time owner of the saltworks, does not see an good eye this proposal. The April 29th 1926, part of the buildings will be dynamited. In addition, of many secular trees of the esplanade were shaven.

The June 10th 1927, the department of Doubs acquires of the saltworks and undertakes its restoration in 1930.

The saltworks sheltered during the year 1938 a Spanish republican refugee camp. In the same way, in October 1939, following the beginning of the Second world war, a battery of DCA is installed in the court and of the troops of the genius place in the buildings.

In June 1940, the saltworks pass German side and of the troops continue to remain there. Following a formulated request a few months later by the Germans, a Center of Gathering of the gypsies and wandering of the area is installed in the saltworks by the French authorities of May 1941 to September 1943.

It is the February 20th 1940 which the decree classifying the saltworks and its wall enclosing to the historic buildings is published in the Official journal.

There was then a vast campaign of press carried out by artists, journalists and writers of the area in order to alert the public opinion and the authorities of the urgency to safeguard this site.

In 1965, Marcel Bluwal used the house of the director as decoration for the tomb of the Commander in his televised adaptation of Dom Juan of Molière. Michel Piccoli incarnated Don Juan and Claude Brasseur interpreted Sganarelle.

Since 1973, the royal saltworks, Institute Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, are member of the European network of the arts centres of meeting. (40 members in Europe today)

In 1982, the saltworks was placed in the Liste of the world heritage of UNESCO.

Today, largely opened with the public, it shelters, inter alia:

in the building of the Wet coopers, the Ledoux museum present by many models, works with the futuristic roundness, of which much was never carried out.
in the buildings of salts, the temporary exhibitions.

Gallery

Random links: