Hangar à dirigeables
MonumentHidden Treasure
Hangar à dirigeables, located in Ecausseville (Manche), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Ecausseville, Manche, Normandie
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 49.4515, -1.3817
- Mérimée Reference
- PA50000012
A reinforced concrete cathedral rising from the fields of Normandy, this 1919 airship hangar is the only vestige in France of the Great War's anti-submarine aircraft programme - a 150-metre colossus that never housed an aerostat.
History
In the heart of the Cotentin peninsula, a few kilometres from Valognes, stands an unlikely silhouette in the Normandy bocage: a huge, curved, silent concrete vessel whose proportions defy belief. The Ecausseville airship hangar is one of France's most unusual industrial monuments - a nave without an altar, built for flying machines that never came. What makes this site absolutely unique is the tension between the overweening ambition of its design and the total emptiness of its operational history. Built in the emergency of the First World War to house airships tasked with tracking down German submarines in the Atlantic, the building was completed too late. The war was over, and the airships never entered the vault. The monument is therefore, in the fullest sense of the word, a monument to the useless - and it is precisely this paradox that makes it fascinating. The experience of visiting it is a striking one. On entering the hangar, visitors are immediately struck by the scale: 150 metres long, 24 metres wide, 28 metres high. Light filters in through side openings, bathing the space in a diffused glow that accentuates the curvature of the 25 reinforced concrete trusses. The acoustics, cavernous and enveloping, add to the almost religious atmosphere of the whole. Move freely between the massive pillars, look up at the prefabricated concrete tiles that form the roof, and you realise that you are in something rare: an industrial space from the early 20th century preserved in almost total integrity. The site benefits from a discreet but endearing natural setting, typical of inland Manche: gentle meadows, hedgerows, often changing skies. The confrontation between this concrete giant and the surrounding agricultural landscape is in itself a memorable aesthetic experience, particularly appreciated by architectural photographers and lovers of industrial history.
Architecture
The Ecausseville hangar is a discreet masterpiece of civil engineering from the early 20th century. Its structure is based entirely on the Hennebique process, a patented construction system that revolutionised French engineering at the end of the 19th century by combining metal reinforcements and poured concrete to create load-bearing elements of unprecedented strength and formal flexibility. The entire building is made up of 25 reinforced concrete trusses arranged perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, forming a nave with a low arch section 150 metres long, 24 metres wide and 28 metres high at the ridge. These monumental proportions corresponded to the dimensions of the semi-rigid airships of the ZD 3 class, whose wingspan required such dimensions. The roof is the building's most remarkable technical feature. It is made of 2,540 prefabricated concrete tiles laid on the reinforced concrete framework, a process that enabled the industrialised production of roofing elements while guaranteeing their resistance to the elements of the Normandy climate. The gable façades, which are wide open at their bases to allow the aerostats to enter, are closed by a monumental sliding door whose operating mechanism is itself an object of study for engineering historians. Inside, the space is entirely free of any intermediate supports, allowing fluid circulation along the entire length of the building - a structural feat that testifies to the mastery of the engineers of the time in the use of reinforced concrete.
Related Figures
François Hennebique — ingénieur français pionnier du béton armé, dont le procédé constructif fut utilisé pour bâtir le hangarOfficiers de la Marine nationale française — commanditaires et maîtres d'ouvrage du projet aéronaval de 1916-1920Ingénieurs du Génie Maritime — concepteurs anonymes de l'ouvrage, relevant de la direction technique de la MarineDirection d'Artillerie Navale de Cherbourg — institution qui prit en charge le site de 1939 à 1994
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Hangar à dirigeables located?
Hangar à dirigeables is located in Ecausseville, Manche department, Normandie region, France.
Is Hangar à dirigeables open to visitors?
Hangar à dirigeables is currently closed to visitors.