Why France’s water towers are gaining heritage status and new life
"Châteaux d'eau" are being reappraised as industrial heritage, with some gaining protected status and others converted into homes, gîtes and tourist attractions
Published
Water towers are invisible.
Yet, they are among the most imposing buildings that exist. Whether they are there or not, people do not necessarily pay attention.”
Eudes Ajot used to be one of these people around the mid-2000s.
An art student, he would travel south from Chartres (Eure-et-Loir) to Blois (Loir-et-Cher), driving through small villages and towns on secondary roads. He had a thing for scenic views and marvelled at antennas, hoping he could buy one and turn it into a primary residence. He looked into it and learned it was not possible.
“And then I took an interest in water towers,” he said.
In 2008, he joined a newly founded association by a group of friends who wanted to store their pictures of water towers of France. Today, Mr Ajot, an art curator, is the president of Les Châteaux d’eau de France, an association for the promotion and recognition of water towers in France.
Changing perceptions
The first, rather laborious, of his tasks has been to assess their number. It lists 13,500 potential examples on its website, out of a total number of 16,000, according to Mr Ajot.
The second, most strenuous one, has been to change people’s perception of them and recognise their heritage or artistic value rather than only their utilitarian function.
“It used to be the wart on the picturesque landscape,” said Mr Ajot.
Romans called them castellum divisorium, a structure to store water that was then funnelled by aqueducts towards other areas. French people are the only ones to have kept the Latin root castellum, calling them chateaux d’eau and not tours d’eau.
They boomed in the 19th Century and are closely intertwined with the emergence of railways. Locomotives demanded a lot of water and needed filling. Many stations got their own tower. The 20th Century, strongly imbued with hygienist ideas, saw them move away from train stations. Water towers entered towns and villages.
By 1980, every French commune had running water at home and, almost as often, a street named after it; the most famous being the rue du Château-d’Eau in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
“They are telling a local story. Châteaux d’eau in Colmar (Haut-Rhin) or Metz (Moselle) are heavily influenced by German engineering. Those in the south of France are made of concrete and covered with bricks,” said Mr Ajot.
It remains a little-known fact that Le Corbusier’s first work was a château d’eau in Podensac (Gironde) in 1917, then signed under his real name Charles-Édouard Jeanneret.
From the 1980s, buried reservoirs with pressure-boosting systems made traditional water towers obsolete. These new systems offered a more discreet, technical alternative, pushing the former towards obsolescence and disuse.
“They remain industrial heritage, whether they are liked or not,” said Mr Ajot.
Many mayors still do not see it that way.
It is often a one-way street that leads to destruction. Towers in La Ferté-Fresnel (Orne) or La Bruffière (Vendée) are two of the most recent examples. Over recent years, however, several mayors have been open to other uses of water towers.
Yannick Imberty and his wife Séverine Frances, two architects based in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), turned a water tower abandoned since 1984 into a 300m², four-storey home, complete with a 360° rooftop terrace.
Second lease of life
The couple began with a major deconstruction phase, removing the old interior, including the concrete dome that once protected the water. They then rebuilt from the ground up, adding floors, doors and windows to the 20-metre-high cylinder.
It was bought by a family for €143,000 and is used as a primary residence.
They have not been the only ones to have carried out a complete overhaul of water towers.
The water tower of Daon (Mayenne), abandoned for 30 years, was bought and renovated by plasterer Michael Buton in 2017, who, after two years of work and €300,000 invested, opened it as a gîte.
These projects have multiplied over recent years, Mr Ajot said, mentioning the tourist office of Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze), a panoramic restaurant in Palavas-les-Flots (Hérault) or a crêperie in Ploudalmézeau (Finistère).
“We are not against destruction,” said Mr Ajot, “but we would rather offer water towers a second lease of life when possible.”
Several artists have painted water towers, such as Paule Adeline or Boris Voyret.
“Architects have transformed water towers from hidden utilities into bold, high-capacity landmarks – turning them into striking features of the skyline. Technical advancements now allow these structures to stand tall, no longer blending into the background,” wrote the association on its website.
It is advocating for their listing, whether as Monument historique, Patrimoine remarquable du XXe siècle or Patrimoine d’Intérêt régional d’Ile-de-France – three listings that could open up tourism revenues for departments. Forty-six water towers are currently listed on the website. Twenty-five of them are Monuments historiques.
Eventually, Mr Ajot got the scenic view he wanted. He bought one in Paimpol (Côtes-d’Armor) six years ago and is currently overseeing renovation works ahead of his retirement.
