Léon Chagnaud (1866-1930) was a French businessman and politician.

Early life

Léon Chagnaud was born on 12 March 1866 in

Le Bourg-d'Hem Le Bourg-d'Hem (; Occitan: ''Le Borg d'Hem''; Marchois: ''Le Borg d'Ent'') is a commune in the Creuse department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in central France. Geography A farming and forestry area comprising the village and a few small ...

, rural France.French Senate: Léon Chagnaud
/ref>Jean Gammal, Pascal Plas, Guy Avizou
''Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Limousin sous la IIIe République: Creuse''
Limoges: Presses Universitaires de Limoges, 2001, pp. 45-48 His father, Hippolyte Chagnaud, was a mason based in

Guéret Guéret (; Occitan: ''Garait'') is a commune and the prefecture of the Creuse department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in central France. Geography Guéret is a light industrial town, the largest in the department, with a big woodland a ...

who owned quarries of

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

which were used to pave some of the streets of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. His mother was Jeanne Chagnaud. His sister, Antoinette Chagnaud, married Philippe Fougerolle, a mason who founded Fougerolle, a construction company acquired by

Eiffage Eiffage S.A. () is a French civil engineering construction company. it was the third largest company of its type in France, and the fifth largest in Europe. History The company was formed in 1992 through the merger of several long standing comp ...

in 1992. He graduated from the

Arts et Métiers ParisTech Arts et Métiers ParisTech () is a French engineering and research institute of higher education. It is a ''grande école'', recognized for leading in the fields of mechanics and industrialization. Founded in 1780, it is among the oldest French i ...

engineering school in Châlons-sur-Marne. His father died in 1891, when Chagnaud was 25. He then did his military service.

Career

With his inheritance, Chagnaud founded Entreprise Chagnaud, a construction company. In Paris, he built the Viaduct of Passy across the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

as well as the

Paris Métro Line 4 Line 4 () is one of the sixteen lines of the Paris Métro rapid transit system and one of its three fully automated lines. Situated mostly within the boundaries of the City of Paris, it connects Porte de Clignancourt (Paris Métro), Porte de C ...

under the Seine, the railroad tracks from the

Gare d'Austerlitz Gare d'Austerlitz ( English: ''Austerlitz station''), officially Paris Austerlitz, is one of the seven large Paris railway terminal stations. The station is located on the left bank of the Seine in the southeastern part of the city, in the 13 ...

to the

Gare d'Orsay The Gare d'Orsay () is a former Paris railway station and hotel, built in 1900 to designs by Victor Laloux, Lucien Magne and Émile Bénard; it served as a terminus for the Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans (Paris–Orléans railway). It w ...

, and the Opéra métro station. In provincial France, he built locks of the Canal du Centre, the

Rove Tunnel The Rove Tunnel ( French: ''Tunnel du Rove'') is a currently out-of-use canal tunnel in Southern France that connected the 16th arrondissement of Marseille to the Étang de Berre in the Bouches-du-Rhône department from 1927 to 1963. It allowed f ...

, the aqueduct of Achères, the

Éguzon Dam The Éguzon dam is a hydroelectric dam on the river Creuse in central France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana ...

. He also built the Ghrib Dam in Oued Chorfa, and the

Bou Hanifia Dam Bou or BOU may refer to: * Bou, Loiret, a town and commune in northern-central France * Bou (name) *Bank of Uganda * Basis of Union (disambiguation), various organizations *British Ornithologists' Union * Boulder Geomagnetic Observatory * ''Bou'' ...

in Bou Hanifia,

French Algeria French Algeria ( until 1839, then afterwards; unofficially ; ), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of History of Algeria, Algerian history when the country was a colony and later an integral part of France. French rule lasted until ...

. Additionally, he built the

Lötschberg Tunnel The Lötschberg Tunnel is a long railway tunnel on the Lötschberg Line, which connects Spiez and Brig at the northern end of the Simplon Tunnel cutting through the Bernese Alps of Switzerland. Its ends are at the towns of Kandersteg (2 k ...

in Switzerland. Chagnaud purchased '' L'Écho de La Creuse'', a regional newspaper. He was also a large landowner in Creuse,

Indre Indre (); is a department in central France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are known as the ''Indriens'' (masculine; ) and ''Indriennes'' (feminine; ). Indre is part of the current administrative region of Cent ...

, and French Algeria. He served on the board of directors of the Société des Mines de bitume et d'Asphalte du Centre (SMAC), which owned an

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

mine in Pont-du-Château and pioneered the use of asphalt to build roads in France. Additionally, he served on the Boards of Directors of two Moroccan companies: Omnium de Transports au Maroc and Ports Marocains. He served as a member of the

French Senate The Senate (, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly (France), National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. It is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' and ...

from 1921 to 1930, representing Creuse. He was a staunch supporter of Prime Minister

Raymond Poincaré Raymond Nicolas Landry Poincaré (; 20 August 1860 – 15 October 1934) was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1913 to 1920, and three times as Prime Minister of France. He was a conservative leader, primarily committed to ...

. He ran for re-election in 1930, but lost his seat to François Binet. He became an Officer of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

Personal life

He married Pauline Jouanny on 14 July 1875 in Bonnat. They had a son, Charles Chagnaud, and a daughter, Mrs Jeanne Lenormand. They resided at 83, Avenue Henri-Martin, in the

16th arrondissement of Paris The 16th arrondissement of Paris (; ) is the westernmost of the 20 arrondissements of Paris, the capital city of France. Located on the city's Right Bank, it is adjacent to the 17th and 8th arrondissements to the northeast, as well as to the ...

. They also owned two châteaux in La Creuse: the Château de Lasvy in Champsanglard, and the Château de Beauvais in Saint-Amand-Jartoudeix, and another château in Indre: Château de Bélâbre.

Death and legacy

He died at his Château de Lasvy in Champsanglard on 31 July 1930. He was buried in Bonnat. His son served in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and inherited the family business.Premiere Guerre Mondiale: Charles Chagnaud
/ref> His company is now known as Chagnaud construction.Chagnaud construction

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chagnaud, Leon 1866 births 1930 deaths French civil engineers French corporate directors French senators of the Third Republic Officers of the Legion of Honour Arts et Métiers ParisTech alumni