The Calais Dragon
Gardien de l’équilibre des mondes, le Dragon de Calais est une création originale de l'artiste François Delaroziere qui accompagne la réinvention de la ville. Ce saurien, premier membre de notre bestiaire, voyage tout au long de l'année et vous invite à re-découvrir l'identité urbaine, maritime et patrimoniale de Calais.
A monumental machine flying over Calais Beach
The Calais Dragon is a colossal construction made of steel and carved wood: the most imposing and technical construction ever imagined by François Delaroziere. Its spectacular mobility is inspired by reptiles. Highly expressive, it spits fire, smoke and water in different forms. Mist pours out of its body through thirty vents. Its eyes, eyelids, ears, mouth, tongue and fins are mobile. It can lie down, stand up, run up to four kilometres per hour and flap its thick canvas wings. Its opal-coloured wooden skin covers an area of six hundred square metres. Forty-eight passengers can climb up to its back by means of a staircase built into its tail.
Why a dragon in calais ?
Depuis des millénaires, les hommes se transmettent ces histoires pour donner un sens au monde et à la vie. En choisissant de créer un dragon, François Delaroziere s’empare d’une figure universelle présente dans toutes les civilisations. Souvent symbole de puissance et associé aux quatre éléments, il adopte régulièrement la posture du gardien. L’animal est à la fois de feu, d’air, de terre et d’eau. Il est à l’image d’un grand détroit du monde, d’un territoire brassé par le vent et les embruns, dont la frontière entre l’eau et la terre est poreuse.
L’étymologie du mot dragon signifie d’ailleurs « voir », « regarder avec acuité », il est celui qui veille un trésor. Représentation de l’union des contraires, il incarne aussi la fascination de l’inconnu. Il est dit que le monde est issu de leurs rêves. Dans le Nord on le sait assurément puisque les processions traditionnelles d’effigies de géants sont désormais classées au patrimoine mondial de l’Unesco.
Identity sheet
Height : 10 to 12 meters
Width : 5 to 17,5 meters with outstretched wings
Length : 25 meters
Weight : 72 tons
Speed : 0 to 4 km / h
Propulsion : Hybrid
Materials : wood, metal, leather, canvas, copper
Manipulations : 4 to 6 pilots
Capacity : 50 passengers
Travel duration : 45 minutes
The Calais Dragon MYTH
Beneath the thick crust of the earth runs a maze of deep galleries which connect the seas and the continents. Sometimes, these galleries branch out and widen until they create worlds. Fantastical creatures inhabit these galleries. Large human settlements are the gateways out of this subterranean labyrinth, they open up the passages that connect the underground world to our world.
Since the dawn of time, these «gateways» have been sealed and held shut by sacred stones. The Dragons are the world’s gatekeepers. It is they who maintain balance. Dragons exist in all shapes and colours, they possess enormous powers and every dragon is unique. Le Dragon de Calais is fire, air, earth and water… he has always watched over the lands and seas of thenorth.
Dragons only appear to humans in situations of extreme need, to settle a conflict or to allay an evil. They are naturally benevolent but can also be wild and unpredictable
TRAVEL ABOARD THE CALAIS DRAGON !
The Dragon of Calais can be seen in its nave at all times, or while traveling on the Calais seafront. It is by embarking on board that the experience takes on its full dimension: climb along its tail and stroll on the covered panoramic platform integrated into its back. Discover a breathtaking view of Calais the beach and the Côte d'Opale. The dragon awakens, a unique 45-minute journey begins, to the rhythm of this exceptional animal.