Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Chappe de Gradignan telegraph tower, located in the park of the Institut des Jeunes Deaf, is the last remaining relay of telegraphic lines installed in Gironde in the early 19th century. Built in 1825, this circular structure, ten metres high and five metres in diameter, illustrates the technological innovation of the era, designed to transmit messages remotely via a mobile arm system. Its sober architecture, typical of Chappe relays, makes it a rare testimony of this pre-industrial period.

Classified as a Historical Monument by decree of 26 November 2012, the tower has benefited from recent restorations, including the reconstruction of its inside staircase and transmission mechanism. Although now integrated into an urban environment, its original location – along a strategic telegraphic line – highlighted its key role in regional communications. The accuracy of its current location is estimated as satisfactory a priori, according to the data of the Merimée database.

The Chappe system, an ancestor of the electric telegraph, operated thanks to a network of towers connected by visual signals. In Gironde, this Gradignan relay was part of a wider mesh, now almost entirely extinct. The tower, although protected, does not seem open to the public permanently, and its current use is limited to its heritage and educational value, within an institute dedicated to the education of deaf young people.

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