Behind these discreet, vegetation-covered facades lie the Ligus offices, a group of buildings that are now deserted and intrigue many curious visitors. But before becoming simple offices, the site was once home to a liqueur distillery founded in 1909. This largely forgotten industrial past serves as a reminder that certain places in the Bordeaux metropolitan area have had several lives.
Before the offices, a distillery that operated for nearly 80 years
At the beginning of the 20th century, the site was home to a distillery specializing in the production of liqueurs. Like many companies of the time, the establishment had both manufacturing and storage areas as well as administrative offices.
The business gradually expanded and even experienced a particularly dynamic period. Between the 1930s and 1950s, the distillery reached its peak and played a key role in the local economy.
But over the decades, the sector evolved and the business eventually declined. After several decades of operation, the distillery finally closed its doors in 1987, turning an important page in the history of the site.
A site converted into offices… before falling into oblivion
The closure of the distillery did not immediately mark the end of activity on the site. In the late 1980s, the site was bought by a group of car garages, which decided to convert the buildings into administrative offices.
The former industrial spaces were then refurbished to accommodate meeting rooms and workstations. Some traces of the industrial past are still visible in the building’s architecture, particularly on the façade.
But a few years later, these offices were also abandoned. Today, the site remains closed and seems frozen in time.
Like many abandoned buildings, it also arouses the curiosity of photographers and enthusiasts of forgotten places, who are interested in these fragments of industrial heritage left out of sight.
However, the site remains private property and is not open to the public. Nevertheless, it remains a discreet witness to Bordeaux’s industrial history, reminding us that before becoming these mysterious abandoned offices, the site once produced liqueurs that were well known in the region.
