A building of the Royal Saltworks

Salt is something we take for granted. But in the days before refrigeration, it was vital for the preservation of perishable foods. Julius Caesar wrote: "Man can live without gold but not without salt."

In France, however, the monarchy metaphorically turned salt into gold by implementing the gabelle. The gabelle originally was a general commodity tax introduced by Charles of Anjou in 1259, but by the 15th century, it was applied only to salt. The crown held a monopoly on the distribution of salt, and it also required every individual over the age of eight years to purchase a minimum amount of salt each week.

The situation was compounded by the Farmers-General, intermediaries who paid the king an annual fee for the privilege of collecting the tax. Although the gabelle was levied uniformly when it was introduced, these middle men eventually began charging different rates in different regions of France. This resulted in the already unpopular tax becoming detested and led to the illegal practice of salt smuggling.

Dissatisfaction with the gabelle is said to have been a significant cause of the French Revolution in the 18th century.

Salt has been produced around France’s Jura mountains since the Iron Age. During medieval times, the Jura foothills town of Salins earned wealth and power from the briny aquifers that lay beneath it. For centuries, the Salins saltworks evaporated water from the brine in giant cauldrons heated by firewood from the surrounding forest, extracting the valuable salt. By the second half of the 18th century, though, the town’s brine was becoming increasingly diluted and its firewood supply depleted.

In 1771, Louis XV decided that a new royal saltworks would improve production. He commissioned 38-year-old architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux to design the facility. Known for his Neoclassical style, Ledoux was a Utopian who believed that architecture and urban design could contribute to the development of an ideal society. He scoured the Franche-Comte region of France for the perfect location for the new saltworks, drafted his plans and submitted them for the king’s approval.

Ledoux chose a clearing in the middle of the Chaux forest between the villages of Arc and Senans. The forest would provide the necessary firewood, while brine would be piped the 20 kilometers from Salins. The underground pipeline would be made from the hollowed trunks of 15,000 fir trees and would be guarded by the military.

He designed an integrated facility, where nearly everyone in the community both lived and worked. It took the form of a closed semi-circle with the director’s villa at the center of the main axis. This was flanked by buildings in which the brine would be evaporated. For aesthetic purposes, these buildings did not have chimneys; instead, the smoke was released through dormer windows. Workshops and dwellings for carpenters, coopers, smiths and other laborers were located in the curve of the semi-circle.

This arrangement allowed the director unobstructed supervision of the entire facility from his villa. None of the approximately 240 inhabitants could leave his workplace or dwelling without being observed.

In all, there were 11 stone buildings in the Neoclassical style, with pillars, porticoes and pediments beneath tiled roofs. The complex represented Ledoux’s concept of how a "modern" industrial society should look and be organized.

Construction began in 1775, and production at the facility started four years later. But the output of the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans never fulfilled expectations. The brine from Salins continued to become weaker, and much of it seeped from the pipeline through fissures in the wood and poorly made joints. At the end of the pipeline, Ledoux had included a 500-meter-long wooden structure intended to concentrate the brine by natural evaporation from exposure to wind and sun, so less firewood would be needed to extract the salt. However, the Jura climate proved unsuitable for this.

After the gabelle was lifted in 1789, the saltworks were sold to a private company. It replaced the hollow trunks with metal pipes and used coal for fuel, but it could not make a success of the operation. In 1895, production at Arc-et-Senans ceased.

The unique industrial complex sat abandoned until 1927, when the Department of Doubs (the part of the Franche-Comte region where the saltworks is situated) purchased it and saved it from ruin. In three successive phases of restoration, the department returned the buildings, lawns and gardens to their former splendor. In response, the French government classified the saltworks as a historic monument.

Since 1972, the complex has been headquarters for the Claude-Nicolas Ledoux Institute, which includes the Salt Museum, the Ledoux Museum and exhibition galleries.

Recognizing the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans as the first major achievement of industrial architecture, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) added it to the list of World Heritage Sites in 1982.