Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The brewery-maltery Lefebvre-Scalabrino found its origins in the sale as national property, in 1795, of the brewery of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-André. This historic site was taken over a century later, when Suzanne Scalabrino launched the construction of a new, more modern and ambitious brewery in 1910. The building, partially destroyed during World War I, was rebuilt in 1918 in a marked regionalist style, combining brick and stone decorations.

The factory was organized according to a cascade production process: the malt was stored and ground on the fourth floor under a zenithal roof, while the peat (for roasting) occupied the third, and the malt crusher the second. A steam machine Weyher and Richemont, still in place, operated via belts and pulleys all the floors, connected by metal stairs. The vaulted brick cellars served for fermentation in barrels, and an underground connected the courtyard to the city walls.

At its peak, around 1926, the brewery employed about 20 workers and produced up to 12,000 hectolitres of annual beer, packed in bottles. After production was stopped that year, the site became a storage site. Saved from oblivion in 2000, it was acquired by the community of communes of the Country of Matisse, which undertook a faithful restoration over three years. Today, the building protects a complete historical material (cuves, oven, pump) and bears witness to the local brewing heritage.

The architecture preserves traces of the former abbey Saint-André, especially the stables (commons), integrated into the industrial complex. The owners' houses, the cobblestone courtyard and the ventilating fireplace complete this set classified as a historical monument. The site, public and private, is now a place of technical and social memory, illustrating the evolution of production methods in the early twentieth century in the North of France.

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