Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Buc waterworks, located in the Yvelines in Île-de-France, were built between 1684 and 1686 under the direction of engineer Thomas Gobert, according to Jules Hardouin-Mansart's plans. Commanded by Louvois, Superintendent of the King's Buildings after Colbert's death (1683), this work was part of the vast hydraulic network designed to supply fountains and water games in Versailles Park. Unlike the Marly machine (pumping the Seine), the Buc aqueduct used gravity to convey the waters of the ponds of the Saclay plateau (Bièvre/Yvette), via a system of connected gutters and ponds (Trou Salé, Pré Clos, Saclay, Villiers).

The construction mobilized the soldiers of the Royal Regiment of Normandy, replacing a failed iron siphon. The structure, 580 m long and 24 m high, consists of two levels of 19 superimposed arches (millstone and cutting stone), with an upper canal 1 m wide covered with slabs. A fontanier's house, attached to the water pipe and still inhabited, completed the device. Gobert praised its sustainability: "more solid and lasting as much as the world," a phrase engraved on a commemorative plaque.

Inaugurated on 13 June 1686, the aqueduct was classified as a Historic Monument in 1952. It illustrates the ingenuity of the versatile hydraulic arrangements, combining Roman technique (Arcades) and local innovations (rainage of rainwater). The Saclay plateau, dug with gutters, thus became a natural reservoir for the "Domain of the Sun King", while the work marked the grandeur of the reign by its monumental scale. Integrated into the National Estate of Versailles in 2024, there remains a major testimony of the technical and political history of classical France.

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