Salin-de-Giraud, "our history in the Camargue"

The Solvay coron was built between 1896 and 1902 by the Belgian company having imported its red brick architectural model. Salin is nicknamed "coron du sud" because of these dwellings designed on the model of the working cities of the north. This model reproduces the hierarchy of the enterprise, from the director's house to the workers’accomodation. Impregnated with paternalism, the Solvay company built for its employees, among others things, a hospital, a school group but also arenas.

Built in the twentieth century, the arena of Salin-de-Giraud is part of the social arsenal that the Solvay factory had set up for its staff. The workers from Gard wanted to have a place for their passion for bulls. The friar poet Carle Naudot, foreman at the Solvay factory, created the bullfighting club Prouvenço Aficioun to animate this enclosure, one of the first buildings of its kind in Provence. Today, arenas are a nerve center for the socio-cultural activity of the village.

The Péchiney district has a less structured and organized organization than the Solvay district. It is more the result of a policy of temporary development and reoccupation of vacant buildings. Less structured, this district gave way to individual and collective initiative. So we can meet with DIY sheds, gardens in front of the house, shortcuts. It is possible to walk and walk from one street to another without forcing the privacy of its inhabitants.

In 1900, Adrien Badin was hired at the Salindres factory (Gard) by M. Péchiney. An essential figure in the development of the Company, he is appointed director after the departure of Mr. Péchiney. He established a system of retirement and health protection for his workers, he built "modern" cities. The company will experience a rapid development, from 3 to 12 factories in 1917 ! One of the neighbourhoods will long be called Badinville. A statue has been erected in his memory.

The flourishing industry Solvay factories (established in 1895) requires manpower, especially at the time of the First World War when the French are at the front. The Greeks, who arrived between the two wars, settled by family reunification. They kept their customs and religion while integrating themselves into the life of the village. A church for Orthodox worship was built in 1952. The Salins du Midi company will donate it to the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of France in 2009.

In the mid-nineteenth century, 10,000 ha were developed by the company Henri Merle (Péchiney thereafter). Solvay settled next. The village of Salin-de-Giraud is born from the double implantation of Péchiney and Solvay in the late nineteenth century and their need for salt. The two companies turned to outside labor, initially from surrounding areas and then of Italian, Armenian and Greek origin, to carry out this painful work of salt exploitation.