Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Dampierre-sur-Salon's mansion, built around 1785 by Claude-François Rochet (1747-1814), embodies the prestige of local industrialists. This master of forges, married to Claude Françoise Faivre, directed the forges of Dampierre and Baignes. The building, made of limestone, combines raised ground floor, square floor and croup roof. No archive reveals the identity of its architect.

The industrial site, attested as early as 1420, had its peak in the 18th century with a blast furnace producing up to 900 thousand cast iron annually. Rochet erected his home, a symbol of his economic power. After his death, the factory passed to Claude-Pierre Dornier in 1804, then to Dufournel in the 19th century, before the blast furnace was extinguished in 1862.

Turned into a hardware factory by Antoine Waltefaugle in 1881, the factory diversifys its production (metal labels, frames) under its descendants. The house, classified as a historical monument in 1993, became a communal property under the name of Espace Couyba, paying tribute to Charles Couyba (1866-1931), a politician and poet who had possessed the place around 1909. Today, she hosts a music school.

Industrial buildings, modernized in the 20th century (halls of 1969, workshops of 1973), reflect the technical evolution of the site. Annual production reached 13,800 tonnes of steel in 2007. Despite the destruction of workers' housing in the 1990s, the well, the wrought iron fence and the L dependencies remain protected by the 1993 classification.

The site, powered by the Salon River, uses hydraulic wheel (1889), turbine (1910) and electricity (1946). Its development reflects local economic changes: from traditional metallurgy to metal construction exported in the 1980s. The factory, which covers 450 000 m2 of which 40 000 are covered, employs up to 272 people in 1990.

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