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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The three stone culverts of Larivière-sur-Apance, dating from the 2nd half of the 18th century, are representative examples of small works of art of this period. Located on the river Apance, in the commune of Larivière-Arnoncourt (Haute-Marne, Grand Est), these culverts are distinguished by their arches in basket cove and their chasseurs-roues terminals. They illustrate the rural engineering of the Ancien Régime, designed to facilitate local movements while resisting frequent floods in this valley surrounded by the Saône plateaus and the Faucilles mountains.

Apance, a 34.4 km river crossing the departments of Haute-Marne and Vosges, played a key role in spatial planning. Born near Serqueux, it snakes through landscapes of sandstone and marnes, shaped by erosion, before pouring into the Little Saône at Châtillon-sur-Saône. The natural micro-region Apance-Amance, at the hinge of the former provinces of Champagne, Lorraine and Franche-Comté, was a strategic crossroads where these culverts served as much for agricultural trade as for the defense of the land, as evidenced by the rural paths they still cross today.

Ranked Historic Monuments by order of 13 May 1996, the three culverts are distributed on separate tracks: the first on the rural road towards Fresnoy-en-Bassigny, the second towards Lamarche, and the third on the departmental road D238. Their preservation reflects the heritage importance of these works, symbols of 18th century craftsmanship and pre-industrial networks. Their sober architecture, adapted to the hydraulic constraints of the Apance, makes them privileged witnesses to the history of rural transport.

The geographical context explains their conception: the Apance Valley, framed by reliefs such as the Langres plateau and the Faucilles Mountains, required lasting solutions to cross its meanderings. The culverts, properties shared between the commune and the department, are part of a landscape where water has always structured human activities, from the supply of villages to the irrigation of land. Their ranking also underlines the desire to preserve a heritage often neglected, but essential to understand the spatial organization of the Ancien Régime campaigns.

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