The Cachat bar in Evian-les-Bains was built by architect Albert Hebrard between 1903 and 1905.
After the inauguration, tourists and water drinkers discover a vast hall with a wooden dome, all in the art nouveau style with lush ornamentation. The decoration will be completed in 1906 by the statue of a nymph symbolizing the Cachat source and which sits in the middle of four basins from which flows the precious water that fills the glasses of the curists.
This magnificent building located near the source, discovered in 1807 by Gabriel Cachat, houses lounges, post office, ticket counter for boat crossings, Bi-daily concerts are given there and thus become a high place of the worldliness of the spa.
The Cachat snack bar is a companion masterpiece, an atypical and original work with multiple influences. The wooden dome of the first level is of great complexity. Its composition in small wood reveals an exceptional mastery of the structural line.
After the Second World War, the snack bar lost its original use and was then partly transformed into an office for the SAEME (Société Anonyme des Eaux Minérales d'Evian), the large hall remaining open to the public. In 1959 a new bar was built by the architect Novarina and the engineer Prouvé.
Today, it is the property of the city that wishes to make it again a place of animation in the heart of Evian-les-Bains.
The time, use and events of life have caused degradation and even disappearance of certain parts or elements, with «brutal» interventions to consolidate the structure.
The general diagnosis of the building carried out in 2018 by the architectural firm RL&A revealed the poor general condition and especially the weakness of the wooden structure, and thus trigger an emergency consolidation operation. The building permit was issued on 27 November 2019.
The construction site, first phase of work
It really started in 2021, after the safety of the cathedral glasses. It concerned the restoration of the covered enclosure including the interior walls (walls, ceilings and roof underside of the upper level).
Several state bodies have intervened on this site: masonry - ashlar, structural-roofing, carpentry, metalworking, electricity, asbestos removal, decorations.
The site, second phase of work
The numerous interventions on the wooden structure being practically completed, the laying of the tile cover on the large dome will be able to start. At the same time, the stained-glass window stand is in progress.
The closure and cover phase is scheduled to end in July 2023.”
Une opération soutenue dans le cadre du plan de relance
Le montant total des travaux s’élève à 4 676 575 € HT - Dans le cadre du plan de relance, la participation financière de l’Etat - DRAC Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes s’élève à 1 027 905 € soit 25% du montant total.
La Buvette Cachat est protégée au titre des monument historiques - inscription le 26 avril 1986
Maîtrise d’ouvrage : Commune d’Evian-les-Bains
Maître d’oeuvre : Didier Repellin du cabinet d’architecte RL&A (suivi du chantier : Romain Larcher, architecte du patrimoine)
Contrôle scientifique et technique : Direction régionale des affaires culturelles Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Début du chantier : octobre 2020 après une opération de désamiantage
Fin du chantier : décembre 2023
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