Visits to the conical anti-aircraft shelter
Visible at the bottom of the park of the town hall, this building in the shape of a cone or sugar loaf, as the Villenoyens call it, 18 meters high, was built between 1938 and 1940, on the eve of the Second World War to protect the staff of the Sucrerie de Villenoy from bombs that could be launched by enemy aircraft on the factory or the nearby railway line. About a hundred people – including a few residents of Aristide Briand Street – could take refuge there, especially during the two warnings of 1944. Children slept in the shelter. It was the siren of the Town Hall of Meaux or the bell of the House of the director of the Candy that warned of the arrival of a wave of bombers. In France, the shelter of Villenoy, which has just been registered as a historical monument, is unique. More than 80 years after its construction, it bears witness to the lives of the inhabitants of Villenoy and the Pays de Meaux at a particularly tragic moment in our country’s history that must be remembered. It is part of our heritage. The originality of this unusual construction, witness of the history of Villenoy makes it truly an attractive site for groups of hikers in the region, associations of «reconstitunts» or lovers of historical tourism on the theme of the Second World War.