Your channel
The Eure-channel ( French Canal de l'Eure , including Canal Louis XIV called) was one of Louis XIV. Vera lasstes project with which the waters of the Eure over a distance of approximately 80 km to the water fountains in the park of Versailles should be conducted .
Construction of the canal began in 1685, but was stopped after three years due to the War of the Palatinate Succession and was not resumed after the end of this war.
background
Soon after Louis XIV had the first water features built, it became clear that their water needs could not be met in the area around the park.
To solve the problem, Riquet , the builder of the Canal du Midi , which was completed shortly afterwards (1681) , even suggested diverting part of the Loire at Briare . Riquet had concluded from the greater flow velocity of the Loire that it must be higher than the Seine and probably also than the hill of Satory south of the Palace of Versailles. In 1674 Colbert immediately had the idea checked by Abbé Picard , who had already measured parts of the palace garden to be created using the latest methods. Picard quickly ascertained the low altitude of the Loire, and the plan was off the table.
After Louis XIV relocated the court to the not yet fully completed Palace of Versailles in 1682 , water consumption, especially the water features in the park, rose sharply. The reservoirs built near the castle were no longer sufficient. The water diverted from the Bièvre and the system of the Étang de Trappes and the Étang de Bois d'Arcy with a 1500 m long connecting pipe could not meet the demand. The construction of the Marly machine and the Louveciennes aqueduct to conduct water from the Seine from the north over around 10 km to the castle park, as well as the construction of the Buc aqueduct to the south of the park, proved to be insufficient.
Planning and construction
Louvois , who became Surintendant des Bâtiments, Arts et Manufactures de France after Colbert's death in 1683 , had a number of smaller rivers examined. Philippe de La Hire determined in 1684 when leveling the Eure that the place Pontgouin ( ) in what is now the Eure-et-Loir department was higher than the Étang de Trappes and thus also higher than the water features.
After Louis XIV had approved the project, La Hire and Vauban drew up plans for a 110 km long canal from Pontgouin to the palace gardens in a very short time. The Eure should be dammed with the 8 m high dam called Écluse de Boizard ( Boizard lock) so that there would always be enough water for the canal, which start above Pontgouin, cut off an arch of the Eure from Pontgouin, at the castle Maintenon was to cross the Eure on an aqueduct at a great height and then lead past Rambouillet to the Étang de Trappes , where it would be connected to the existing lines. Vauban had in his terms of reference initially an almost 17-kilometer aqueduct to cross the terrain on both sides of your between Berchères-Saint-Germain and Épernon provided. After the king rejected this as too expensive, longer and higher dams and the now much smaller aqueduct of Maintenon were planned.
In the spring of 1685 construction work began with the advance of numerous regiments. In addition, workers from the local population and from more distant parts of the country were deployed. At its peak, 30,000 people were employed on the project. In order to be able to supply the construction sites with food, fodder for the pack animals and building materials, the Eure was made navigable from Nogent-le-Roi to above Maintenon , i.e. H. canalized and provided with locks . In addition, a number of small supply channels were created. Vauban constructed special flat-bottomed barges for the transport, which nevertheless had a large load-bearing capacity with a shallow draft.
The work went on quickly; on August 25, 1685, the section from Pontgouin to Berchères was flooded. The big problems came later, however: since the large aqueduct had been rejected, the cut in the Larris creek near Berchères had to be overcome with a culvert , which was followed by a tunnel through a hill. In the same way, plans were made to convert the already started, now significantly lower aqueduct of Maintenon with pressure pipes into a culvert on a bridge. The orders for the lead pipes were awarded and the first pipes delivered when Louis XIV began the War of the Palatinate Succession ( French Guerre de la Ligue d'Augsbourg ). The soldiers were now needed for the war and the pipes were shipped to Marly. The construction site came to a standstill.
After the Nine Years' War there were ideas to resume work, but in the end it stuck with the ideas.
The remaining parts of the canal are under monument protection .
photos
- Remaining parts of the canal
Écluse de Boizard ( Boizard Lock) above Pontgouin ( )
Canal bridge over the Coisnon brook near Saint-Arnoult-des-Bois ( )
Canal in the park of Fontaine-la-Guyon
( )
Canal near Dallonville in the municipality of Bailleau-l'Évêque ( )
Shaft at Berchères-Saint-Germain ( )
Tunnel at Berchères-Saint-Germain ( )
Canal bridge over the Boisricheux to Chartainvilliers road ( )
Maintenon Aqueduct ( )
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Web links
- G. Despots, G. Bouquin: Histoire du Canal d'Eure, Aqueduc royal de Pontgouin à Versailles. On the website of the Association pour l'Etude et la Sauvegarde des Vestiges du Canal de Louis XIV et de ses Environs.
- Janine Christiany (translated from French by Katrin Schulze): The Canal de l'Eure - an unfinished work. In: DWhG - Ten Years of Water History Research and Reports, Part 2, edited by Christoph Ohlig
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Étang de Trappes is today's Étang de Saint-Quentin
- ↑ Roughly : Minister of Construction and Trade
- ↑ a b c Le Duc de Noailles: Histoire de madame de Maintenon et des principaux événements du règne de Louis XIV . tape 2 . Comptoir des Imprimeurs-Unis, Paris 1848 ( full text in the Google book search [accessed on May 2, 2017]).
- ↑ Carte Particuliere du Canal de la Riviere d'Eure depuis Pontguin, jusques a Versailles ou sont exactement remarquéz les aqueducs, les estangs, les ponts et autres travaux qui sont deßus et aux environs avec les pays circonvoisins. Dediée on Roy par ... Hubert Iaillot, Geographe Ordinaire de Sa Majesté. Historical map of the canal route in two parts, on BnF.Gallica
- ↑ Devis des ouvrages de maçonnerie qu'il convient de faire pour la construction du grand aqueduc que le roi a ordonné de faire pour conduire à Versailles les eaux de la rivière Eure, suivant les plans, élévations et profiles pour ce faits de l'ordre de Sa Majesté. Quoted in Histoire de madame de Maintenon , p. 71
- ^ Eleonora Antuna, Charles Berg: Des canaux pour un canal: Les aménagements de l'Eure et de ses affluents par Vauban et Louvois au XVIIe siècle. on Projetbabel.org
- ↑ Note No. PA00097185, No. PA00096969, No. PA00097185 on Base Mérimée
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