Arc-et-Senans

Arc- et- Senans is a municipality with 1512 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2011) in the French department Doubs in the Franche -Comté and Besançon arrondissement.

Community Development

The town was established in 1779 with the Royal Saltworks, which until 1895 in operation. As the site was chosen from a field between the then villages of Arc and Senans, which was strategically located in close proximity to the huge royal woods of Chaux. About the Dole channel it was connected to the Mediterranean, the North Sea and the port of Antwerp. At the 21 km distant wells of Salins- les- Bains, it has a natural slope. This allowed the construction of an underground pipe system to transport the salt water that was evaporated in Saline for salt extraction.

Culture Political Meaning

In Arc- et- Senans found in 1972 on the initiative of the Council of Europe an important cultural and political meeting place, which adopted a respected today as a pioneering statement on the future of cultural development. Here were included Robert Jungk, Edgar Morin, Georg Picht and Alvin Toffler involved.