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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Chappe de Lévignac telegraph is a tower built in 1834, measuring ten metres high and four metres in diameter. It is one of the rare preserved remains of the Chappe telegraph line linking Toulouse to Bordeaux. Originally, the ground floor housed the stationary, the operator responsible for transmitting messages via the optical system. Although the upper mechanism has disappeared, its potential restoration remains possible.

The tower, located in the forest of Bouconne, was listed as a Historic Monument by order of 3 September 1992. Its location, reported with a priori satisfactory accuracy (note 6/10), corresponds to cadastre B 20 of the municipality of Levignac (code Insee 31297). This telegraph illustrates the rise of optical communications in the 19th century, before being replaced by the electric telegraph.

The Chappe line, put into service during the French Revolution, was able to transmit messages remotely thanks to a system of articulated arms visible from other relay towers. The Lévignac tower, with its simple and functional architecture, bears witness to this pioneering technology. Today, it offers a concrete overview of the engineering of pre-electronic communications, although its original mechanism has disappeared.

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