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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Nitray Dam, built on the Cher between Atheus-sur-Cher and Saint-Martin-le-Beau (Indre-et-Loire), is a needlework built in 1841 as part of a project to restore the navigable river between Montluçon and Tours. It is part of a series of 16 dams designed by the engineer Camille Bailloud, according to the principle of Charles Antoine Poirée, to facilitate river transport.

At its peak in the 1850s-1860s, the Cher saw the transit of up to 67,000 tons of annual merchandise. However, railway competition drastically reduced this traffic: by 1875, only 20,000 tons were transported. Despite work of consolidation in 1894, the Cher was declared unfit for commercial navigation in 1957, leaving room only for recreational activity.

The Nitray Dam, 40 metres wide and 2.45 m high, consists of a concrete radier supporting approximately 600 wood needles arranged vertically. An adjacent lock, equipped with busque wooden doors, allows to cross a elevation of 1.25 m. There are two houses and a bread oven in the hatchery, made of cut stone, while a mill and a weir occupy the right bank.

Although commercial shipping had disappeared, the dam had been maintained for pleasure. In 1997, its wooden doors were replaced identically. Threatened by replacement with mechanized structures in the 1990s, it was finally listed as a historic monument on July 7, 2011, after the destruction of the similar Mazelles dam in 1999-2000. A model in the lockhouse explains how it works.

The site illustrates the hydraulic engineering of the 19th century and the gradual decline of inland waterways in the face of modern transport. Its inscription aims to preserve this technical heritage, today open to the visit and testifying to the industrial history of the Touraine.

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