Observatoire astronomique et météorologique de l'abbé Louis-Théophile Moreux

English translation

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History

Abbé Théophile Moreux, a celebrated figure from the end of the 19th century, is the founder of the private astronomical and meteorological observatory of Bourges. His observatory, built according to his plans and financed from his own resources, was completed in 1909. If the building disappeared at the death of the abbé, there nevertheless remains a construction marked by references to Islamic art. The dome was situated on the crenellated terrace of a tower of compact appearance. The whitewashed facades were covered with ceramic decoration and pierced by paired openings. To this day, no trace remains of the dome and the astronomical eyepiece. However, the observatory remains the only construction of this type in Berry in the 19th and early 20th centuries prefiguring the founding, in 1956, of the Nançay Radio Astronomy Station, in the Cher. This observatory represents a not inconsiderable milestone in the history of astronomy in France, under the Third Republic.