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27/02/2009
The Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans
The Arc-et-Senans Saltworks, in the Doubs département, was built during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI and produced salt on an industrial scale. Its unique semi-circular form was inspired by Greek architecture. It has been classified as a Unesco World Heritage site.
Rational beauty
The Arc-et-Senans salt “works” looks more like a Greek temple than a factory. Located 35 km from Besançon , the Royal Salkworks is the “first major achievement of industrial architecture”, according to Unesco. It marks a turning point, since, “For the first time, a factory was built with the same care and attention to architectural quality as a palace or a major religious building.”
Its architect, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, wanted to combine economic efficiency with beauty of line. He therefore created a complex of 11 buildings, set out in a perfectly harmonious semi-circle, including the former workshops and workers’ accommodation.
The 3D presentation on Géoportail gives an excellent impression of the imposing nature of the site, built between 1775 and 1779.
The architecture reflects the ideal of progress upheld by the Enlightenment. Ledoux’s aim was in fact to bring a rational and structured organisation to work. He was also aiming to complement the Saltworks by designing an ideal city, which was to occupy a second semi-circle. This utopian dream was never completed.
A choice location
The salt producing process took place in two stages: first of all by the evaporation of salt water, then by heating the concentrated brine. Extracting the salt – the “white gold” of the period – called for an abundant supply of fuel, in this case, wood.
The site was chosen for its close proximity to the extensive Chaux forest, which covered an area of 22,000 hectares. The fact that the region is also frequently swept by strong north winds made it even better suited to evaporating brine.
Furthermore, the hamlets of Arc and Senans were located close to the major roads leading to Burgundy and Switzerland.
An industrial and social experiment
Until the Revolution, the Royal Saltworks operated as a virtually autarkic workers’ city.
When in full production, the annual output reached an average of 35,000 quintaux (hundredweight), although the projects’ designers had hoped to produce almost twice that amount.
In the XIXth century, competition from the Eastern saltworks and marshland saltworks proved overwhelming – and Arc-et-Senans finally closed down in 1895.
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The Royal Saltworks today
Left abandoned, the Royal Saltworks was finally acquired by the Doubs département. Apart from catering to a considerable number of tourist visitors, Arc-et-Senans is now a centre for architectural research. Two hundred years after Ledoux and his utopian dream, architectural projects are now presented here for the city of the future during symposiums, seminars and exhibitions.
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