Monuments d’eau. L’étonnante histoire du réseau hydraulique du Domaine de Meudon (1680-2023) – Meudon (France)
Water monuments. The astonishing story of the Domaine de Meudon’s hydraulic network (1680-2023)
After three centuries of oblivion, this exhibition will present the incredible story of twenty years of work by the Association pour la Restauration du Réseau hydraulique de Meudon (ARHYME) to reveal once more an exceptional structural enterprise: the immense hydraulic network at the Domaine de Meudon. Composed of aqueducts, runnels, reservoirs and mills, this ingenious system – built in just three years (1680-1682), enabled the fountains and water jets that splendidly adorned France’s Grand Siècle formal gardens to by supplied with water.
The Domaine de Meudon is a complex site: several levels, irrigated exclusively with rainwater, a multitude of terraces and high gardens, rendering the task all the more difficult. It was thanks to the talented fountaineers, who developed new techniques for Versailles, that the water jets reached – for one of the first times – the great height of over 20 metres, offering visitors a source of great surprise and of awe.
Discover a collection of prints, rare water-coloured drawings, magnificent 17th-century plans and technical elements of the unveiled hydraulic networks at Versailles and Meudon. Original moving models render Meudon’s famous hydraulic mills – described in great detail in the Encyclopédie by Diderot and d’Alembert. Contemporary photographs offer a view of the network’s sheer volume and the complexity of its maintenance.
