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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Florentine Tower of Leval, built in 1922 by Alsatian architect Gustave Umbenstock, is an ancient switch tower from the railway depots of the Aulnoye-Aymeries station. It is 50 metres high and combines a reinforced concrete and cast iron structure, topped by a four-sided clock. Its architecture reflects the standard designs standardized by the Northern Railway Company after the First World War, to modernize the destroyed infrastructure.

The tower is divided into six floors, each dedicated to a specific function: cable room on the ground floor, shop, workshop, toilet, technical rooms (fusibles and relays), and a panoramic control room of 30 m2 at the top. A concrete cube supporting the clocks crowns the building, while ceramics decorate its base and arrow. It illustrates the technical innovation of the time, with a Mors switch system allowing remote manoeuvres to secure agents.

Ranked as a Historic Monument since December 31, 1999, the tower bears witness to the intense railway activity of the Val de Sambre in the 20th century. It is one of eleven copies of Florentines towers built according to the plans of the North Railway Company, owned by the Rothschild family. Its architect, Umbenstock, was commissioned via Raoul Dautry, deputy chief engineer of the network, to rebuild railway sites on unladen land, as in Aulnoye-Aymeries.

The tower also symbolizes post-First World War reconstruction, with standardized deposits (e.g. Lens, Bethune, Lille-Déliverance) to optimize network profitability. His coal slide, which disappeared in the 1980s, recalled his logistical role. Today, it remains a marker of the industrial heritage of Hauts-de-France, linked to the golden age of rail.

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