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Origin and history

The Château d ́eau de Toulouse, built in the 1st quarter of the 19th century, is a brick tower located at the junction of the Cours Dillon and Pont-Neuf. Originally designed to distribute the Garonne water in the city centre, it did not have a storage tank but served as a pumping station. Its architecture, compared to a lighthouse or a "small castle Saint-Ange", divided opinions in its time, between admiration for its strength and criticism of its aesthetics. Disused in 1870, it was transformed into a municipal depot before being converted in 1974 into a photographic exhibition gallery, becoming a major cultural place.

The project was born in 1789 thanks to the legacy of 50,000 gold francs from Capitoul Charles Laganne, designed to provide "pure, clear and pleasant" water to the Touloussains. After political delays, the death of his widow in 1817 revived the project. The engineer Jean-François d'Aubuisson de Voisins, city councillor, studied filtration and water circulation systems for ten years. A competition in 1817 rewarded Jean Abadie for hydraulic machinery, while architect Jean-Antoine Raynaud designed the building. The works, launched in 1821, were completed in 1825, enabling a network of operating fountains to be supplied as early as 1829.

The building, 30 metres high, consists of seven floors: a basement with two 6.5-metre slide wheels operating eight pumps, a circular ground floor, and four floors topped by a lantern. Two water circuits fed the system from the Garonne River, filtered through natural gravels under the Dillon River. Although cited as a remarkable industrial achievement since the 1830s, the castle became obsolete in 1870, a victim of the congestion of its filter gallery. It is then transformed into a tool depot before its cultural restoration.

In 1971, municipal councillor Paul Ourliac proposed to entrust the place to photographer Jean Dieuzaide to become the first municipal photography gallery in France. Since 1974, the ground floor has been open to the public, and the basement, restored in 1984, exhibits remains of the original machinery. Although the floors are not visited, the monument, inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 1987, remains a symbol of Toulouse's industrial heritage, combining technical history and artistic vocation.

The castle is part of an urban context marked by the challenges of sanitation and water supply in the 19th century. Toulouse, in full population growth, suffered from an outdated supply network. The legacy of Laganne and the innovations of Aubuisson, Abadie and Raynaud have made it possible to modernise access to drinking water, while leaving a unique architectural heritage. Today, the site celebrates both pioneer hydraulic engineering and photography, two pillars of local culture.

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