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From the Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains to the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, the production of open-pan salt

NHK World Heritage 100 Series

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Narration Text

Arc-et-Senans is located at the foot of the Jura Mountains in north-eastern France. Contained in the mist-shrouded countryside is a semicircular complex with buildings arranged in order.

This is the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans. It is the place where one architect’s dream city was to be built. It was designed by the architect by the Claude-Nicholas Ledoux who had original ideas and also valued a classical sense of beauty. The beams of this bridge were designed as ships. This factory was designed in the shape of a pyramid. Ledoux left numerous innovative and futuristic designs.

The Royal Saltworks of Arc et Senans was built in a semicircular shape and is about 400 meters in diameter. "The Director’s House", a 4-storey building containing a church and a town administrative office, stands at the centre of the complex. Large columns made from cylinder-shaped and square blocks are designed in the image of an ancient temple. The 80 meter-wide buildings on either side of the columns are the Saltworks.

Salt water was boiled to produce about 3,000 tons of salt per year. Reliefs on the wall depict the image of consolidated salt. Craftsmen’s houses and a barrel making factory stand opposite.

The Gate House has a stately entrance and also contained many function rooms, including a bakery and a prison. The Architect Ledoux wanted to include all city functions within this Saltworks complex. All the buildings in Ledoux’s semi-circular design benefit from the sun. "A good environment makes for a good human being," he said.

The salt water was taken from a city called Salins, about 20 kilometres away. However, how did they manage to find saltwater in the middle of the mountains? The area around the Jura Mountains was submerged by shallow sea several hundred millions of years ago. The soil still contains large amounts of salt and the water running below the ground is 10 times stronger in salt than regular sea water. Water mills In Salins, are used to pump up underground water even today. Salt used to be a major revenue source for the Royal family in those days. High walls enclosed the Saltworks area and the access to and from the area were strictly restricted in order to protect the valuable salt.

It is possible to see every corner of the whole complex from the Director’s House. Arranging buildings in a semi-circle shape was also a great way to monitor the whole area effectively.

Ledoux originally planned to build schools and hospitals in the other half of semi-circle to make a perfect city within one big circle. However, his dream never became reality. The French Revolution broke out 10 years after the completion of the Royal Saltworks – Ledoux ended up in jail.