Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux built the Saline Royale between 1775 and 1779 to boil brine piped twenty-one kilometres by wooden conduit from Salins-les-Bains, and he arranged the buildings in a half circle with the director's house at the centre, so that everything and everyone could be watched from one point. He intended it as the first half of a complete ideal city, Chaux, which was never built; his drawings for it survive and are displayed. The works never made money and closed in 1895 after a fire. The site is UNESCO listed and now runs exhibitions, a garden festival and a large landscape park in the unbuilt half of the circle.

What you actually see

• The half circle - eleven buildings in a semicircular industrial plan.
• The director's house - the columned centre from which all was overseen.
• The Ledoux museum - models and drawings of the unbuilt ideal city.
• The garden festival - contemporary plots in the open half of the circle.

When to go

April to October for the gardens and full opening; the site opens year-round with shorter winter hours. Concerts and exhibitions run through the summer.

Honest expectations

The salt-making equipment is long gone, so the interest is architectural and conceptual rather than industrial. The buildings are large and empty. The gardens carry much of a summer visit.

Nearby

Salins-les-Bains, the brine source, lies southeast; Besancon is northeast.