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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

La Cigale is an iconic brewery in Nantes, designed by the architect-ceramist Émile Libaudière and inaugurated on 1 April 1895. Ornate by sculptor Émile Gaucher and painter Georges Levreau, she embodies the exuberance of Art Nouveau. From its opening, it attracts the Nantes bourgeoisie and artists of the Graslin theatre, becoming a popular meeting place, especially by surrealists such as Jacques Prévert and André Breton.

During the Second World War, La Cigale was frequented by the German occupant, who even published advertisements in the Pariser Zeitung to expand his clientele. After the war, it served as a stage for several films, including Lola by Jacques Demy (1961) and Jacquot de Nantes d'Agnès Varda (1991). Despite threats of abandonment in the 1970s, it was preserved by its classification at the Historic Monuments in 1964.

Transformed into self-service in the 1960s, La Cigale returned to its vocation as a brewery in 1982. Today, it perpetuates the tradition of the great French breweries of the 19th century and remains a symbol of the Nantes culture, mixing architectural heritage and lively social life. Its interior, fully protected, bears witness to the fascist of the period and its central role in local history.

Located in Graslin Square, opposite the theatre of the same name, La Cigale is part of an urban complex marked by elegance and cultural activity. Its architecture and interior decorations, classified since 1964, make it a remarkable example of the art of living at the Belle Époque, while illustrating the historical upheavals of the twentieth century.

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