A visit to the Berliet City, designed and built a century ago by the visionary paternalistic patron Marius Berliet, for whom humanism and ambitious industrial projects were not incompatible…
100 years ago, Marius Berliet embarked on the adventure of his life with the construction of the Berliet factories in Vénissieux and Saint-Priest.
The Cité ouvrière Berliet was born at that time, in the midst of an ingenious industrial complex (still active today), the will of this paternalistic patron for whom humanism and ambitious industrial project was not incompatible..
She was in the service of the factories, and the place of passage of many Berliet employees who found here the roof they dreamed of, roof so difficult to find at a time when the housing crisis was at its peak.
Paul Berliet continued the work of his father in the same spirit, modernising the villas, building new buildings, maintaining the roads, the public space, so that the City would be a pleasant place to live.
During the visit, the different phases of its construction will be unveiled, from its creation during the First World War until the 1960s, from its glory hours to its darkest hours after the bombing of May 1944, from its rebirth from 1950, its atypical American order and its ingenious way of distributing the habitat directly inspired by the "Carré de Mulhouse".
The special character of the original part of the City of Berliet has led to its being listed in the General Inventory of Cultural Heritage.
The purposes of the construction (in the heart of the City) of the Berliet Farm, its sanitary and social role, will also be explained to you