Arc-et-Senans
France > East > Arc-et-Senans
At the southeastern edge of the Forêt de Chaux, some 35km south of Besançon, is the unfinished eighteenth-century "salt city" of the Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans (guided tours in French and English April–June, Sept & Oct 9am–noon & 2–6pm; July & Aug 9am–7pm; Nov–March 10am–noon & 2–5pm; €6.50), commissioned by royal decree in 1773 to replace the ageing works at Salins-les-Bains. The complex, dreamed up by the avant-garde architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, was to have become a model utopian city. His grandiose project reflected the pseudo-egalitarian social concerns of the pre-Revolutionary era: the settlement was to have radiated along the primary axes of a clock-face from a nucleus housing the administrative offices, distillation plants, public baths and other municipal utilities.Sadly, the socio-aesthetic ideals could not overcome the works' functional deficiencies: the pipeworks linking the new plant with Salins deteriorated rapidly and only half of the central arc was ever completed. Moreover it was effectively a labour camp, with the workers' movements severely restricted and children exploited in the process. Salt production continued until the end of the nineteenth century, but all that remains today is the impressively restored semicircle of eleven buildings, a monumental epitaph to Ledoux's unconsummated vision. The beautiful complex now houses two museums, usually with exhibitions about architecture.
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