Echaillon Stone

Échaillon stone was in use in Gallo-Roman times, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Grenoble (Debelmas 1990). Production appears to have temporarily ceased towards the end of the eighteenth century. Operations resumed and were developed from 1848 by Etienne Bernard, and then, in 1853 by Jean François Papet-Biron and his son Pierre Papet-Biron. Since 1873, the grandson, Georges Biron, together with Jacques-Aimé Milly-Brionnet (and with his sons later on) have opened quarries whose products have gained a high reputation and were sent to all regions of France and abroad.
Original quarries were located at the bottom of the valley at River level but due to the folding of the quarried strata, mid-nineteen century operations had to move some hundred metres above. To extract the stone, first open pit and later, huge underground cavities were created and steep funicular railways were built to lower stone monoliths to the workshops close to River level.
Difficulties of access to the quarries, lack of manpower after the First World War, and introduction by Vicat of ‘moulded cement’ as a replacement for building stone (especially in the Grenoble area where it was first introduced), were amongst the reasons for the decline and the end of production. Georges Biron died in 1921, and the Biron and Milly-Brionnet quarries subsequently declined a decade after the end of the Second World-War (SPIA 2019).
All three varieties of Échaillon stone were used at the Paris Garnier Opera House, inside and outside the building, in sculptures, stairs, balconies, drums and columns.
The Alexandre III Bridge on the River Seine in Paris also displays Échaillon stone in its abutment balustrades, handrails and base of the main pillars.
In the Pittsburgh Carnegie Museum of Natural History, USA, columns and pillars of the Grand Staircase Hall and walls of the Music Hall Foyer are in the yellow variety Échaillon stone.
As depicted in Figure 1, a number of monuments in various countries around the world have been found to include Échaillon stone.