Royale Foundry of Creusot
In September 1781, the King authorised "the establishment of furnaces in Montcenis in order to cast according to the 'English method'". So, in December 1781, the architect achieved to establish the plans and de Wendel, named commissioner by the King, negotiated with the local owners for the acquisition of the grounds, some hundred workers arrived from the Auvergne for the earthworks. The construction site could be started.
"From this moment on, things would go fast. This is for ever over with the fresh valley of the Charbonnière, with its green meadows and its small creek. It is over from flowery hedges full of birds, fern, furze and heaths. The green will disappear, the lark will be hunted from the sky by thick smokes of the foundry"…
Jean CHEVALIER, Le Creusot, berceau de la grande industrie française. Paris 1935
