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Origin and history

The Bourg-lès-Valence Cartridge was founded in 1855, when the industrialist Noël Sanial founded a textile factory on a 12 hectare estate in the Chony district. Inspired by fourierist ideas, he built a large brick ensemble with stone pavilions for the manufacture of Indian women, shawls and silk and cotton carpets. The factory, employing up to 900 workers, suffered, however, from the crisis of sericulture, the Civil War (cotton supply break) and two fires (1858, 1862), leading Sanial to bankruptcy in 1866.

In 1874, the state purchased the site to make it a national cartridge factory, modernizing the infrastructure with a station connected to the Valencia-Grenoble line and workshops adapted to the production of brass cartridges (marked "VE"). The factory experienced a major boom during the First World War, from 450 to 3,000 employees, mostly women. Its peak came before World War II, with 4,000 workers, before the Armistice of 1940 drastically reduced its activity.

During the occupation, the cartridge shop becomes a source of resistance. Its director, General Henri Eugène Cabotse (a member of an underground network), facilitates operations such as the theft of a ton of weapons in December 1943. Four employees, arrested for these acts, are deported to Buchenwald. After 1945, activity gradually declined: production ceased in 1964, leaving room for companies such as SOGEV (nuclear and space equipment), then SOGEME (electronics, radar), before the industry finally left in 2020.

Since 2009, the site has been renamed Cour des Images, hosting renowned animation studios (Folimage, La Poudrière), schools (European School of Animation Cinema) and cultural associations. Filed with the additional inventory of the Historical Monuments in 2003, the whole preserves its characteristic industrial architecture: the main building of 1855, 30 metre chimney, powderbox of 1878, and military station with its hydraulic basin.

The architecture reflects its dual past: the brick quadrilateral, typical of 19th-century textile factories, incorporates fourieristic elements (open spaces, cast iron columns). The cartridge shop adds military infrastructure, such as the Decauville railway linking the station to the workshops. Today, this heritage combines industrial memory and creative dynamism, symbolizing the conversion of wasteland to places of culture.

The powder magazine (1878), isolated for security reasons, and the ammunition store (the so-called "station"), testify to the adaptation of the site to weapons production. These elements, with the chimney and hydraulic pipes, have been protected since 2003. The site thus illustrates the economic and technological changes of Drôme, from the industrial revolution to the digital age.

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