From “Scourge” to “Prisoner":
The Great Infrastructure Projects of the 20th Century
Postwar Europe dreamed of hydroelectric energy. From 1955 to 1960, the Durance saw the construction of the massive Serre-Ponçon dam, Europe’s first earth core dam, and, to this day, its largest.
29 March 1957: The Durance "changes beds" for the creation of the gigantic Serre-Ponçon dam, the largest (123 m/404 ft) high) and first earth core dam in Europe.
The language used in the propaganda film above depicting the event to describe the project is one of war, of combat, of conquering, something that is also enhanced by the use of Wagner's March of the Valkyries.
The narrator speaks of the joyful cries of the workers and the rage of the water. "Before piling and compacting 12 million cubic meters of dirt, a real mountain, they had to do violence to the river and force her into the prepared deviation galleries." The Durance is referred to in the feminine in French and there is a clear brutality in the way they speak of her as a "prisoner" while declaring victory over her and her "capriciousness." The final words speak for themselves: "And in the muddy whirlpools of her defeat, under the spring sun, the subdued Durance seemed to already admit to the gold radiance of rational fertility, the strength, the light, and the wellbeing of a whole region."
“Life is water. Relax the palm of your hand, and you hold it. Clench your fist, you lose it.” - Jean Gionio
To build the dam meant destroying what lay in its way, namely the villages of Savines, which relocated nearby, and Urbaye, which was never rebuilt. Over one thousand people had to be relocated, along with their cemeteries, transported piece by piece. While the locals originally resisted the project, they were left with no choice but to abandon their homes.
Footage of the village of Savines being blown up for the new trajectory and the ribbon cutting marking the dam's closing.
An early 20th-century photograph of the Durance River and the Serre-Ponçon Valllery prior to the construction of the dam.
The village of Savines, which was relocated.
Overlooking the Serre-Ponçon lake, where the village of Ubaye used to stand. The villagers resisted the destruction, in vain. The church was blown up, and the cemetery was relocated 300 meters above where the town once stood.
The Savines church during demolition
The village priest observing the demolition of Savines
The old Savines (above), and the new (color)
the Bridge, Before (right-hand corner), and After (left)
The village priest watches as the Savines church is blown up
Provence’s most famous native son, the writer Jean Giono, seen in the first film as he watched the overhaul of the river, wrote a story, Hortense, ou l’eau vive, based on the destruction of the site. In it, he likens the protagonist, a young woman named Hortense, wild and untamable, to the river’s white water rapids, and slipping through the fingers of those who would take from her.
Trailer for the film of Hortense ou l’eau vive. Hortense’s feet act as a dam in the river.
Subtitles: Où les uns ne voient que de la matière…les autres se représentent la rivière comme elle est ds les allégories, semblable à une jeune fille
