The Galerie du Château d’Eau of Toulouse !!

Posted in Europe, France
I am looking back in my blog for the memories’s sake and finding wonderful posts that I feel need a refresher, I have look into one of my favorites City of Toulouse, and found several would like to update with new text and links for you and me, This is an off the beaten path site that should worth a detour, me think. Let me tell you about the Galerie du Château d’Eau of Toulouse !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I toulouse-chateau-d-eau-tower-frt-jan20 This is a wonderful area to walk, plenty to see around here as you can see by my other posts on our visit to Toulouse. You will have your hands full, and we came back for more. For info read the latest official sites as the square or Place Laganne site is closed for renovation. The exhibitions in the water tower gallery are temporarely move to 58 allées Charles de Fitte, The Château d’Eau or water tower, or Galerie du Château d’Eau, or Gallery of the Water Tower is a brick tower located at the junction of Cours Dillon and the Pont-Neuf. As its name suggests, the building was originally used for water distribution in the center of the city but was not strictly speaking a water tower since it did not include a storage tank. It was reconverted in 1974 into an exhibition space dedicated to photography and is now a very popular place for locals and visitors alike, at the same time as a high place of culture. Saved from demolition in the early 1970s, the building has been converted since April 1974 into a gallery devoted to photography. As such it was historically the first public gallery exclusively intended for the exhibition of photographs. In 1984, the basement was converted into an additional exhibition space. In 1990 a documentation center and a second gallery were respectively built under the arches of Pont-Neuf and one of the old ramps to the bridge. From January 2020 the Galerie du Château d´Eau is taken over directly by the city/town hall for the conservation and enhancement of the funds acquired after long negotiations by the town for the creation of a dedicated place, the city/town hall finally instructed the Toulouse Municipal Archives and the Gallery of the Water Tower to respectively conserve, enhance and bring this fund to life. toulouse-chateau-d-eau-tower-back-jan20 One neat sight next to it is one of the Wallace fountain ,one of several in Toulouse, the city has 8!  This one is at Place Laganne. toulouse-wallace-fountain-place-laganne-jan20 A bit of history I like tell us that the primary function of this water tower was to distribute the water from the Garonne river, collected and filtered a few meters away, on the meadow of filters. When he died in 1789, the capitoul Charles Laganne bequeathed to the city with the aim of “distributing the waters of the Garonne, pure, clear and pleasant to drink”. Charles Laganne specifies in his will that his money must be used no later than ten years after the death of his widow. Political vagaries will delay the use of this providential envelope, but the death of Mrs. Laganne in 1817 encourage the city to find a solution, a task to which Jean-François d’Aubuisson de Voisins mining engineer stationed in Toulouse and city councilor took the idea the same year and on which he will work for almost ten years, studying and defining the principles and systems of water circulation necessary filtering, channels and pipes. The works were launched in 1821 to be completed in 1825 and supplied a vast network of fountains operational from 1829 and then developed even more. The construction of this Water Tower or Château d’Eau which rises to 30 meters and has 7 floors distributed in a vast basement comprising two levels and a ground floor forming the circular base of the tower, surmounted by the tower itself comprising four floors, the last of which is a skylight giving access to a circular terrace. The basement is occupied by two 8-meter-diameter paddle wheels that drive two groups of four suction-treading pumps coupled in pairs. This duplication of pumping units was intended to prevent a breakdown of one of the two systems from interrupting the continuous water supply. The official Galerie du Château d’eaux of Toulouse :https://chateaudeau.toulouse.fr/en/ The Toulouse tourist office on the Galerie du Château d’eau : https://www.toulouse-tourisme.com/en/activite/le-chateau-deau/ This is  a nice place for the arts, photos, and for the architecture and history link to Toulouse, worth saving and glad they did. Again hope you enjoy this post on the Galerie du Château d’eau of Toulouse as I. And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Unknown's avatar

Published by pedmar10

I am a lover of travels to Europe , Americas , Africa and Asia as well ,who like to share my experiences of the last 53 years with the world, visiting so far 81 countries; living in 6, working in 5, and Citizen of 4, speaking fluently 4 languages. I can deal with sports especially football/soccer and love music, arts, wine collector/drinker, and go out to restaurants, and just visit the world. My background comes all the way from Candelaria and Pajara in Tenerife, Spain where my grandparents came from ;not knowing each other then, to Punta Brava, west of Havana, Cuba. There , my parents born in Cuba met and later on I was born there too. 100% guanche (annexed Tenerife to Spain on April 10 ,1496). I left Cuba as many have to Madrid, Spain where I lived for 4 years. Then, move to Perth Amboy ,New Jersey USA (living there 13 yrs) ; where I completed high school, became a US Citizen, learned to drive a car, and learned English. Afterward, went to the university in Florida, ERAU, and upon graduation decided to moved there to Ormond by the Sea, near Daytona Beach, finally moving North Miami, then Hialeah, then another moved to Silver Lakes division in Miramar, Broward county, Florida; in Florida I lived a total of 18 years. Finally , moved to France in 2003 ,Versailles call me for its royalty, and working in Paris was great. It was time to seek frontiers again and moved to Brech near Auray, Morbihan in Brittany , and later move to not too far Pluvigner. Total so far in France has been 20 years, and counting. Moving average a home every 5.5 years hopefully this will be my last. Cheers All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the written permission of the copyright holder, me. No part of this work may be modified, without the written permission of the holder, me.No part of this work may be exposed to public view in any form or by any means, without identifying the holder as the author, and with the before mentioned permission.

5 thoughts on “The Galerie du Château d’Eau of Toulouse !!”

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.