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Saline royale d'Arc-et-Senans
The Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, in the Doubs, is the work of the architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. The first stone was laid on 15 April 1775 and production began in 1779. The ensemble was never completed, for lack of means, and the ideal city that Ledoux imagined remained a project.
The plan is a semicircle 370 m in diameter, with eleven buildings around a central courtyard. Ledoux used classical elements there, such as Doric columns, and urns evoking the crystallising brine. The workers lodged on site, in integrated housing.
The saltworks processed very salty water, the brine, brought over 21 km from Salins-les-Bains by a wooden pipeline. The expected output was never reached, and competition from sea salt carried by rail, along with pollution, led to closure in 1895. Inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage in 1982, it now serves as a cultural centre, with exhibitions and the Ledoux museum.
