Hôtel des archives départementales de la Gironde

English translation

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History

The building for the archives of the Gironde department was envisaged from 1857 onwards. In 1858, the General Council entrusted the project to the departmental and diocesan architect Pierre-Auguste Labbé. He built this edifice from 1861 to 1865, drawing inspiration from French private mansions of the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as from the approach adopted by Labrouste at the Sainte-Geneviève library (Paris). One of the first archive buildings constructed in France, it was ahead of its time, taking as its model the archives of the Court of Accounts in Paris (now demolished building), and is one of the first buildings reserved for this purpose and to use iron as a material, as well as one of the first to include a public room the size of a library hall, a historical library and a vast entrance hall. It is characterized by rational optimization of space in the storage areas, and by intensive fire safety considerations. It is a neoclassical stone building (two storeys in the façade, three in elevation), composed of a central body (reserved for administrative services and the conservator's residence) and two projecting wings (the storage areas) separated by a courtyard closed off by a gateway. It possesses a fine metal roof structure of slender articulated beams. Each wing rests on the masonry of four load-bearing walls forming an envelope buttressed by a series of powerful interior buttresses. This system permits optimal rational use of space by eliminating all pillars. Powerful groin vaults (at the height of the reading room) support the archive storage level. At the four corners, an interior turret houses a spiral stone staircase; their interior layout has been modified with the modern addition of lifts, staircases and metal shelving on multiple levels. The iron handrail running at the upper level is the reuse of an original element (the only one). The building incorporates a highly considered anti-fire protection system: an isolated building (three streets and a closed rear passageway with grilles); storage areas confined in the wings and separated from the central body by cast-iron doors; wood is excluded from the floor structures; the entire building is covered with a metal roof structure. Labbé had even foreseen the use of iron for the shelving (not realized: they were built in wood). This complex remains to this day the only 19th century departmental archives building still in service.