The Circles Pavilion

The “Circles Pavilion” was built based on sketches by Claude Nicolas Ledoux. He was planning to complete the site of the Royal Salt-works in Arc-et-Senans with an model town in the Chaux forest, where the architecture would speak for itself: the exteriors of the workshops were to represent their interior function. Each building would have its own architectural identity.

The circles workshop was never built. Claude Nicolas Ledoux had imagined it as a coopers’ workshop.

The Coopers’ Workshop

The workshop is based on two intertwined barrels. The superposition of circles is evocative of the metal rings used to hold salt barrels together. According to the plans for this model town, the coopers’ workshop was placed at the intersection of four roads, giving the best possible look-out over approaching traffic.

Manufacturing took place on the ground floor and the workers’ rooms were on the first floor.

Its construction

The building is faithful in its entirety to the drawings of Claude Nicolas Ledoux. A pond has been added to the original plans, reminding visitors that the Jura is a department with plenty of lakes.

Two Jura-based companies came together to produce bleached concrete that reproduces as faithfully as possible the appearance of stone, a material which would have been used in Claude Nicolas Ledoux's time. The bleached concrete was made using additives such as metakaolin and titanium-based white pigments.

The four faces of the building were cast on site, as if it had unfurled from the ground, and then hoisted upright using cranes. When they were de-moulded, the façades were grey in colour, but within three months, had turned a greyish white.
           Height: 14.5 m
           Pond diameter: 45 m
           Weight of a façade: around 200 tonnes

Its purpose

The Circles Pavilion is a showcase for presenting and promoting the Jura.

The many facets of this multi-talented department are presented in fun, informative and interactive displays.

Temporary exhibitions, in collaboration with “Made in Jura”, feature geographical areas or branches of the Jura economy. Creative visuals transport visitors into an atmosphere far from that of the motorway…

The Forest of the Foundations

Permanent exhibition in the basement of the Circles Pavilion.

A group of artists from the Jura, including Yann, a sculptor in Ravilloles, have created a work that presents various aspects of craft and industrial activity in the Department (in both past and present times).

Since forest covers 45% of the department, it is not surprising that trees bear much fruit for many sectors of the Jura’s economy.

At the Circles Pavilion, visitors will find the following activities:

• Woodenware and wood-turning
• Baby-wear: chests of drawers
• The profession of strap-maker: production of straps made from spruce bark to be used for cheese boxes
• Wooden toys
• Plastic toys
• Buttons: 5 Jura-based companies produce buttons for the ready-to-wear sector
• Pottery: Capucins pottery from Salins les Bains
• Salt: the salt-works of Lons le Saunier and Salins les Bains
• Spas at Lons le Saunier and Salins les Bains
• The use of salt in the chemicals industry (Solvay in Tavaux)
• The eyewear industry
• The clock-making industry
• The enamel industry
• Pipe-making
• Diamond cutting
• Comté cheese
• Wine
• Agriculture: breeding of Montbéliarde cows
• Potholing