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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Viviers lime factory, located in the department of Ardèche, finds its origins in the late eighteenth century with the exploitation of a career acquired in 1749 by the Pavin de Lafarge family. As early as 1793, a first lime oven was put into service on the east side of Montagne Saint-Victor, followed by the addition of two more furnaces in 1831. The activity intensified with the creation of a blutery in 1846 and expansion to 10 kilns in 1848. Lafarge Frères, formed in the 1850s, marked a turning point in 1868 with the launch of the production of Portland cement, consolidating the site as a major player in the cement industry.

Between 1880 and 1920, the factory experienced a period of significant modernization and expansion. A working-class city, the White City, was built in 1880, followed by a school in 1882 and a savoirrie in 1888. In 1890, the plant had 62 lime kilns, and the first gas kilns were installed in 1899. The twentieth century saw the arrival of innovative technologies, such as the first rotary furnace in 1912. A new working-class city was built in 1913, and the chapel Saint-Victor, designed by architect Simeon Baussan, was rebuilt in 1922 after a major restructuring of the site in 1921.

The Viviers site, now disused, remains an exceptional testimony to the evolution of lime and cement production techniques. The protected elements include the lime kilns of the 1830s-1840s, the Cité Blanche, the 1910 savoirrie, the working-class city of 1913, and the chapel Saint-Victor, built of cement on a stone base. These remains illustrate the social and industrial history of the region, marked by paternalism and technical innovation, under the aegis of the Lafarge family and then the Lafarge Coppee group.

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