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Origin and history

The Monument to Louis Pasteur (1903), located on Danièle-Casanova Street in Chartres, is a work by sculptor Paul Richer (1849-1933), composed of a marble bust and a bronze high relief. The latter illustrated a key experience of Pasteur in 1878 in Saint-Germain-la-Gâtine, where he demonstrated the effectiveness of his charcoal vaccine, a devastating disease for the Beauce cattle herds. The monument features local figures, including veterinarians and herd owners, highlighting the regional impact of its discoveries.

Initiated in 1895 by a public subscription after Pasteur's death, the project received funding from the General Council of Eure-et-Loir, local districts and the Ministry of Public Instruction. Inaugurated on June 7, 1903 in Saint-Michel Square, the monument was the occasion of a speech by Adrien Proust (father of Marcel Proust), a member of the Academy of Sciences, evoking the role of Pastor in the eradication of coal in Beauce. Marcel Proust would have contributed to the drafting of this text.

The original bronze was melted in 1942 under the Vichy regime as part of the mobilization of non-ferrous metals. Reconstructed in 1950 from the plaster preserved by the Archaeological Society of Eure-et-Loir (now at the Museum of Fine Arts of Chartres), the new monument was inaugurated on October 8, 1950 by François Mitterrand, then Minister of France for Overseas Affairs, and Charles Brune, Minister of Posts. Displaced in 1975 on the central land of Place Saint-Michel, he was enrolled in historical monuments in 2017.

The high relief, of great narrative precision, depicts eight characters around a vaccination experiment: Dr.Émile Roux preparing an inoculation, Charles Chamberland performing an autopsy, and local witnesses such as veterinarians Daniel Boutet and Jules Vinsot, or Séverin Jacquet, shepherd of the flock. This realistic detail anchored in the Beauceron territory distinguishes the monument from traditional tributes, celebrating the scientific work rather than the only figure of Pasteur.

Ranked among the art works victims of the Second World War, the monument also illustrates the heritage issues of the twentieth century. Its reconstruction and subsequent protection reflect the local attachment to this symbol of medical advances and their impact on the regional agricultural economy, especially in the Beauce, a cattle breeding land historically affected by coal.

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