It is a part of heritage that could disappear. A building located in Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis) in which Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and the eponymous prize, lived could be destroyed according to information from the Parisian.
It is an anonymous online petition which announces the destruction of the building, unused for several years. A hypothesis confirmed half-heartedly by the mayor of the city of Seine-Saint-Denis, Stéphane Blanchet, who confides to the daily that “the situation is worrying”.
“The more it deteriorates, the more it costs us”
However, in 2023, the municipal team listed, among the projects that remained to be carried out, the development of the Nobel pavilion “to accommodate in particular associations, the service of community life and a space dedicated to veterans and memory”. It was even envisaged that the Society of History and Life in Sevran would settle there.
Problem is, the situation has not progressed for several years and today, the mayor of the city confides that he can no longer promise that the building, which is increasingly deteriorating, will be rehabilitated.
“The more it deteriorates, the more it costs us. It is cracking badly because there is no foundation. We had to inject into the ground. We are at a point where the technicians are telling us that there is danger. The building is located near a school, Restos du coeur. The situation is worrying,” comments the councilor who estimates, from our colleagues, that the work would cost 4 million euros.
Work on a project that would not be “a financial waste”
“We want to work with the Nobel Foundation on a project that would not be a financial waste,” continues Stéphane Blanchet, who assures that he has not yet signed any demolition permit. “The challenge is not just to tell the story of heritage through postcards. It is to bring to life the still little-known story of the link between Nobel and Sevran, of which we are the custodians, with schools and associations. »
The building was acquired in the 1880s by the Swedish chemist in order to discreetly continue his research. A purchase which led the nationalist press to accuse Alfred Nobel of espionage due to the proximity of the place to the national powder mill Sevran-Livry closed in 1973.
