The Lustucru hall at Arles, view of the 1906 steel structure prior to its dismantling in June 2018. Photo: Paul Smith
tin, Sedan, Grasse, Troyes, Saint-Etienne, Plaine Commune (SaintDenis)… - have important industrial heritage assets and identities.
INDUSTRIAL MONUMENTS PROTECTED IN 2016 AND 2017 The lists of historic monuments published by the Journal officiel for the 2016 and 2017 allow for about a dozen sites of industrial production to be identified, protected under the terms of French legislation on historic monuments (‘inscrits’ or ‘classés’). At Loctudy (Finistère), a small fish canning works dating from the early 20th century and characteristic of a host of similar establishments all along the coasts of Brittany, was protected (‘classé) in 2016, largely on account of the preservation of all its production equipment. It also features today on Bern’s list of monuments in peril. At Renage (Isère), a mid-19th century silk mill, complete with accommodation and a chapel, was given protection as an interesting ‘usine-pensionnat,’ a ‘boarding’ factory where the work force was comprised of young women housed on the site under the surveillance of sisters of the order of SaintVincent de Paul. At Strasbourg, the 1849 state tobacco manufactory, which ceased cigar production in 2010, was given statutory protection prior to its conversion to new uses, essentially uni-
58
NATIONAL REPORTS 2016 - 2018
versity and research facilities. And in what is now—since 2011— the French department of Mayotte, several sites associated with sugar production were protected at Mtsangamouji and Dembeni. As part of a concerted national campaign at a time when lighthouse-keepers are becoming history, several lighthouses in Brittany have also been given statutory protection. Last but not least, the Pont Colbert, at Dieppe was protected (inscribed) in 2017. This 1889 metallic swing bridge, probably one of the last in Europe, was saved from destruction by a concerted local campaign supported by the CILAC and which received added weight in 2016 when the threatened bridge was included on Europa Nostra’s list of Europe’s seven most endangered heritage sites. The issue now is how to preserve what remains of the bridge’s original hydraulic mechanism, threatened with replacement by an automatic system that would allow the jobs of the bridge’s two agents to be dispensed with. Under French law (and unlike the British system of listing), a measure of protection as a historic monument opens up the possibility of public grant money and tax deductions for owners. In these days of cultural austerity at both national and local levels, the number of monuments protected every year—and not only industrial ones—is in steady decline. Out of a total of about 45