Is the central house of Clairvaux (Aube) destined to be destroyed? It is the fear of a certain number of historians and lovers of the site of the Cistercian abbey of Clairvaux (transformed into a prison in 1808), who signed on Monday a Tribune Let’s not destroy the prison
, in Release.
Closing in 2023
The central Clairvaux house, in which prisoners sentenced to long sentences are locked up, will close in early 2023. The decision was announced in 2016 by the Minister of Justice, Jean-Jacques Urvoas, due to many problems of functionality, obsolescence and prison safety
. And this, despite recent renovations amounting to 12 million euros. The detainees – 51 in August against 239 in 2009 – will then be transferred to the future prison in Troyes (Aube).
Vast reconversion project
This forthcoming release of the premises by the Prison Administration has prompted a vast redevelopment project for the Clairvaux site which is underway. This is led by a steering committee bringing together the State and local communities. A call for projects will be launched in the course of 2022. This is a colossal challenge due to the extent of the surfaces involved.
, agreed the prefecture of Aube, in a statement released in July. The site includes around thirty buildings protected as historical monuments for a surface area of 27,000 m2. The only restoration of the enclosure and the roof of these buildings is estimated at 150 million euros.
However, in order not to add to the bill, the State, owner of the site, wishes to demolish a dozen unclassified buildings, dating from 1970, built for the needs of the prison and not presenting any remarkable character from an architectural or heritage point of view
.
“Erase memory” of the place
This is obviously what ignited the powder. Razing the last buildings of Clairvaux prison, its walls, its watchtowers, its supervisors’ accommodation, leads the Ministry of Justice to erase the memory of its own institution
, denounce the signatories including historian Michelle Perrot. It is in this enclosure that the serial killer Guy George, the terrorist Carlos were detained and that the prisoners Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems killed, in 1971, a nurse and a supervisor, which will be worth to them the guillotine.
Defenders of the site are all the more worried that some of the buildings from 1970 have already been destroyed in the wake of the announcement of the closure of the plant in 2016. The idea being that there is no going back possible
, recalls Gérard Beureux, president of the Renaissance association of Clairvaux Abbey, which provides site visits (20,000 visitors per year).
A moratorium requested
The LREM deputy for Aube, Grégory Besson-Moreau, already opposed to the closure of the plant, believes that it is urgent to wait. We do not yet know the future project. Let us freeze, for the moment the financial envelope provided for the destruction of these buildings and wait to see what place this project will reserve for the issue of confinement. Clairvaux has always been linked to confinement: whether religious or prison
, he specifies.
A moratorium, aimed at suspending, the decision to destroy the buildings
, this is also what the signatories of the platform are asking for. Officially, no decision is taken. These fears are premature
, one assures in the entourage of the prefect. The Ministry of Culture, which is carrying out the reconversion project, was contacted and did not answer our questions on Tuesday night.
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