Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The town hall is a hybrid building built in the 19th century, combining an administrative function (may) and a public utility (washing). Located in the department of Haute-Saône, Burgundy-Franche-Comté, it illustrates the communal architecture of this period, where the multipurpose buildings met the practical needs of rural villages. Its designation as a Historic Monument in 2005 underscores its heritage importance, preserving a witness to the collective infrastructure of the last century.

The rectangular wash was erected in 1877 and surmounted in 1881 by the architect Jean-Baptiste Colard, a town hall and an archival cabinet. A fountain, built in 1823 according to the plans of Chapuis, completes the whole. The stone-pillared gallery, with its chamfered angles, houses a drinking basin, reflecting the ingenuity of the water installations of the time. These elements, which have been fully protected since 2005, reflect the evolution of public spaces in rural areas, where hygiene, water supply and municipal management were combined.

The precise location of the town hall-lavoir, in place of Lavoir in the village of Belmont, as well as its status as communal property, reinforce its anchor in local life. The basins and the fountain, integrated into the inscription of historical monuments, recall the importance of water points in the social and economic organization of the villages in the nineteenth century. This monument, still in place, offers a concrete overview of the urban and architectural priorities of post-revolutionary rural France.

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