Canal de Marseille

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Canal de Marseille is a drinking water canal created in the 19th century , which runs in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region and is still the most important source of drinking water for the city of Marseille today. It has a length of about 80 kilometers, if you add the branches in the urban area of ​​Marseille, a length of 160 kilometers is reached.

The Durance above Pertuis

course

Tunnel tour at Coudoux
Roquefavour Aqueduct
The waterway over the Roquefavour aqueduct
The Longchamp Palace

The water supply is derived from the Durance river , where the former branch point was built near the city bridge of Pertuis at an altitude of 185 meters. From there the canal runs west to Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade , then north-west to Saint-Estève-Janson . Since the EDF power station canal, which accompanies the Durance in this area, was built, the water extraction point for the Canal de Marseille has been moved to Saint-Estève-Janson, where the water is now diverted directly from the EDF canal. The uppermost section of the canal is still physically present for about ten kilometers from the former extraction point to the hydropower plant, but is no longer used as intended by the builder. From the power station, the Canal de Marseille runs northwest to the Cadenet Bridge , where its water is dammed in the Saint-Christophe basin. It continues via La Roque-d'Anthéron to Charleval , where it leaves the Durance and the EDF Canal, turns south and crosses the western end of the Chaîne des Côtes mountain range in a long tunnel . After Lambesc , numerous bridges and tunnels are necessary for him to cross the valleys and hills to Coudoux . It bypasses the hill of Ventabren to the east and crosses the river Arc with the imposing aqueduct of Roquefavour . The route continues over the Plateau du Grand Arbois , which, despite its name, is not very flat, but requires numerous other engineering structures until it is dammed in the Réaltor basin in the municipality of Cabriès . After another five kilometers, it reaches the northern outskirts of Marseille at a height of 150 meters near the Saint-Antoine district , in the 15th arrondissement .

Branches in the city of Marseille

A first branch canal leads from Saint-Antoine to the west of the city, to L'Estaque , in the 16th arrondissement . The main canal bypasses the valley of the Aygalades stream and runs on the flank of the Chaîne de l'Étoile in an easterly direction. In the district of Le Four de Buze , in the 14th arrondissement , the canal splits again: the historic main branch turns south, fills the Merlan basin , passes Chutes-Lavie in the 4th arrondissement and finally reaches its end in the Palais Longchamp a representative moated castle. The other branch continues to the east, along the hills, in order to also supply the eastern and south-eastern periphery of the city. It crosses Château-Gombert in the 13th arrondissement , makes an arc to Plan-de-Cuques , a municipality neighboring Marseille, and reaches the 13th arrondissement again at Les Olives . Now it goes on in a tunnel under the district of Les Trois-Lucs in the 12th arrondissement . Then there is a junction to the west that goes to Saint-Julien and ends in the Saint-Bernabé basin . The eastern branch runs via Les Camoins , in the 11th arrondissement , to Aubagne . The main branch bypasses La Valentine in the east, crosses the valley of the Huveaune River with its parallel traffic connections (roads, motorway, railway line) with the help of two culverts and turns west on the southern bank of the river. It passes La Valbarelle , reaches the 10th arrondissement at Saint-Tronc and the 9th arrondissement at Mazargues . Then it slowly approaches the Mediterranean , which it reaches at Montredon in the 8th arrondissement and finally flows into the port of Port de la Madrague at Mont Rose .

Coordinates

Coordinates: 43 ° 39 ′ 58 ″  N , 5 ° 29 ′ 39 ″  E

Building history

It was above all the great European cholera epidemic from 1832 to 1835 that made clear the need for a high-quality drinking water supply in Marseille too. Maximin-Dominique Consolat , Mayor of Marseille from 1832 to 1843, decided in 1834 to have this drinking water canal built under the impression of the approximately 3,000 deaths caused by the epidemic in Marseille.

Work on the major project lasted from 1839 to 1854 under the direction of the engineer Franz Mayor de Montricher . Since July 8, 1849, the Canal has supplied Marseille with water. It reaches the urban area of ​​Marseille with a discharge of 10 m³ per second at an incline of 0.36 m per kilometer. Most of the channel bed is made of concrete . The canal has to traverse mountainous terrain and, with its aqueducts, tunnels and reservoirs, is an important engineering achievement of the 19th century. Until 1970 it was the only source of drinking water in Marseilles. About 17 km of the canal run in the tunnel, 18 bridges had to be built, including the 393 m long and 82.5 m high aqueduct of Roquefavour over the Arc Valley, modeled on the Roman Pont du Gard .

On November 19, 1849, the canal construction reached the Longchamp plateau in Marseille. A magnificent moated castle with a triumphal arch , a semicircular colonnade and two museum buildings as well as underground reservoirs was subsequently built there, the Palais Longchamp .

The canal's water is now purified and chlorinated in two drinking water treatment plants, that of Sainte-Marthe and that of Saint-Barnabé.

Attractions

literature

  • Georges Comair and Jerry R. Rogers: History of the Marseille Canal in France in: World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2011 (proceedings)

Web links

Commons : Canal de Marseille  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry no. PA13000037 in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  2. ↑ Entry no. PA13000019 in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  3. ↑ Entry no. PA00081368 in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)