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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Waldeck-Rousseau, La Chalotais, Sévigné and Harel de la Noë Boulevards, located in Saint-Brieuc, in the Côtes-d'Armor, are an integral part of the old departmental railway network designed in the early 20th century. These infrastructures, today rare, illustrate the technical ingenuity of their designer, the engineer Louis Harel de la Noë, notably through support structures, bridges and guardrails still visible. Their preservation offers a material testimony of the local railway ambitions of the time, marked by a desire to unblock the Breton territories.

Classified Historic Monument by order of 26 June 2014, these boulevards protect a set of architectural elements linked to the old railway: retaining walls, batteries, foothills, as well as the bridge of the Vendel Coast. These developments demonstrate a remarkable mastery of railway construction techniques, adapted to the topographical constraints of the region. Their inscription in the title of historical monuments underlines their heritage value, both technical, historical and landscape, while recalling the key role played by secondary networks in the economic and social development of Brittany at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The property of these works is shared between the commune of Saint-Brieuc and the department of Côtes-d的Armor. Their state of conservation, deemed "a priori satisfactory" (note 6/10 according to the Merimée base), still allows us to appreciate their integration into the urban fabric. Although the railway network has disappeared, these boulevards remain strong urban markers, evocative of a time when the train was an essential vector of modernity and connection between rural areas and Breton cities.

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