Manufacture d'armes de Châtellerault, Arms factory in Châtellerault, France.

The Manufacture d'armes de Châtellerault, known as la Manu, is a former state weapons factory on the banks of the Vienne in Châtellerault. Its preserved industrial buildings now house the Grand Atelier museum of art and industry, the national circus school, a conservatory, sports halls, a skate park and an ice rink called La Forge. Two former chimneys carry a platform by Jean-Luc Vilmouth, 18 metres up.

Created by royal decree on 14 July 1819, the state arsenal first made edged weapons, then firearms and cannon from 1830. Its site on the Vienne was chosen after arsenals at Maubeuge, Charleville and Klingenthal were judged too close to the frontiers. Output grew from 34 workers in 1819 to nearly 8,000 a century later, the "Manuchards". It produced the Chassepot and Lebel rifles and closed in 1968.

Workers here were nicknamed "Manuchards", a name that spread during World War I when the workforce reached nearly 8,000. The site is now called "la Manu" and hosts the Grand Atelier, a museum of art and industry with an Auto Moto Vélo collection and, since 2019, a space on the arms factory and one on Rodolphe Salis's Chat Noir cabaret.

The site lies along the Vienne in central Châtellerault, and the preserved buildings are grouped so the museum, ice rink and circus school can be reached on foot. The armament archive, the Centre des Archives de l'Armement, admits bona fide researchers to older declassified material only on written request.

The two Vilmouth towers, a 1994 work by Jean-Luc Vilmouth, form an 18-metre-high platform built on two former chimneys and serve as a viewpoint over the city. The site also holds the Centre des archives de l'armement, open to bona fide researchers for older declassified material upon written request.