Timeline

Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Courville-sur-Eure wind turbine is a tower-type hydraulic wind turbine, designed in 1902 by engineer E. Lebert. It was 20 metres high, overlooking a well and integrated a pump and a wooden shelter into its structure. Its main objective was to supply drinking water to the nearby psychiatric asylum in Courville. This innovative system for the time reflected technological advances in hydraulics and wind energy.

This wind turbine is part of Auguste Bollée's industrial heritage, of which E. Lebert, owner of patents since 1898, has taken over and adapted technologies. Although its oriented propeller has now disappeared, it remains a representative example of wind turbines of this period. Its functional architecture, combining metal structure and wood elements, illustrates the technical solutions implemented to meet the water needs of public institutions in the early twentieth century.

Classified as a historical monument by order of 2 April 1993, this wind turbine is now owned by a departmental public institution. Its state of conservation and its precise location (Rue Masselin or 34 La Madeleine in Courville-sur-Eure) make it a rare testimony of rural industrial heritage. The accuracy of its geographical location is assessed as very satisfactory, facilitating its identification in the local landscape.

Lebert's machine is part of a broader development of hydraulic infrastructure in France at that time. Asylums and hospitals, often isolated, had to be self-sufficient in essential resources such as water. Wind turbines, combined with pumping systems, offered a lasting solution before the advent of massive rural electrification. This monument thus illustrates the ingenuity of the engineers of the time to reconcile practical needs and technical constraints.

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