Les carrières de Saint Maximin - B.P.E. Lecieux - Active Quarries on Waymarking.com

[FR] La pierre est extraite à Saint-Maximin depuis l’époque gallo-romaine, elle a été utilisée, entre autre, dans la construction des thermes de Cluny.

Une étude réalisée par l’Académie Royale d’Architecture certifie que cette pierre est de très bonne qualité pour remplacer la pierre de Paris (les carrières parisiennes qui minent le sous-sol sont inutilisables). Elle est facile à travailler et résiste bien aux intempéries. De plus, son acheminement vers Paris est facilité par le transport par voie fluviale sur l’Oise et la Seine. Elle a permis par exemple la construction de la place de la Concorde, des Invalides, du palais Bourbon… A partir de 1859 la pierre commence à être transportée par voie ferroviaire avec la création de la ligne Creil – Paris. C’est à cette période qu’elle est massivement utilisée dans la construction du Paris Haussmannien. La pierre cesse progressivement d’être extraite en souterrain à partir de la fin du XIXe siècle : les carrières à ciel ouvert bouleversent alors la topographie locale.

Dorénavant, la pierre de taille est principalement utilisée pour la restauration des monuments historiques et continue d’être vendue en grande quantité à l’étranger.

Aujourd’hui, il reste encore cinq carrières de pierre de taille en exploitation à Saint-Maximin. La pierre qui en est extraite sert essentiellement à la restauration des monuments historiques, elle est également massivement exportée aux Etats-Unis et en Asie. Concurrencés par le bêton, les professionnels de la pierre lui ont trouvé d’autres utilisations (ornementation ou parement par exemple), afin d’en faire un matériau contemporain et accessible au plus grand nombre.

[EN] The southern Oise provided 90 per cent of the stone for the Haussmann era (post-1860) avenues and streets which give the French capital its sweeping and uniform style (and its elusive colouring, ranging from shining white to nicotine yellow).

For decades stone went out of fashion as a building material, partly because of the concrete revolution inspired by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier (who wanted to knock down a large part of Paris).

In the past decade, stone – and especially Paris stone – has come triumphantly back into style. Giorgio Armani helped to encourage the trend by using one of the most expensive varieties of Oise stone for the internal floors and walls of his shops around the globe.

Quarry operators in Saint-Maximim say that several Hollywood film stars have ordered shiploads of Paris stone for building projects in greater Los Angeles in recent years.

Several prestigious new buildings in London have used Paris limestone, including Trevor House, an office block opposite Harrods on the Brompton Road. None of these buildings copy Parisian architecture. They use Paris stone because of its decorative and building qualities and its relative, perhaps surprising, affordability.

To solidify its sudden celebrity, the southern Oise, around Saint-Maximin and Chantilly, has applied to the French state to become the first place to be granted a building stone Appellation Contrôlée – a badge of official regional excellence – like that given to a wine or a cheese.

In the second part of the 17th century, Louis XIV's chief minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, created a commission to decide which stone would best replace the local building material. The commission identified the stone from the southern part of the Oise – conveniently linked to Paris by river – as an almost perfect match for the city's existing monuments, such as the Cathédrale de Notre Dame.

Mélanie Baticle, of the Maison de la Pierre in Saint-Maximin, an organisation set up to promote "stone" tourism and knowledge of stone history in the southern Oise said: "The principal grades of Oise building stone are, when extracted, soft and easy to cut and shape. At the same time – paradoxically – they are very resistant to weathering and time.

"Exposure to the air gives them a kind of resistant coating. That made them perfect for building in Roman times and in the 17th century and has made them much sought after again today."

The whole of the Ile de France, the region around Paris, is built on foundations of limestone laid down 45 million years ago. At that time northern France was covered by a shallow sea. For five million years, the waters laid down successive layers of sedimentation composed of sand, sea-weed shellfish and microscopic organisms. During the millennia, the layers have metamorphosed into different grades of limestone. Some are excellent for buildings; others are crumbly and useless.

In some of the prized upper layers at Saint-Maximin, you can still pick out thousands of tiny "coquillages" – traces or fossils of shell-fish – in each block of stone. This type of stone used to be discarded for its irregularity but it is now prized for its texture and beauty.

(English text from an article by "The Independent")

Type of Stone/Ore mined: Limestone Associated Web Site: Not listed

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