Manufacture d'armes de Châtellerault

It was created by a royal decree of 14 July 1819 to manufacture swords, then (after 1850) firearms and cannons.

Antoine Treuille de Beaulieu in 1840 began to develop the concept of rifled artillery at Châtellerault for the French Army.

The Lebel Model 1886 rifle, the first military firearm to use smokeless powder ammunition and the primary French infantry weapon during World War I, was developed and produced here.

The facility closed as a weapons manufacturing facility in 1968 and was transformed into the central repository of all French military archives related to armament matters (Centre des Archives de l'Armement et du Personnel).

It is open, for older declassified material, to bona fide researchers upon written request.