Deux maisons
MonumentHidden Treasure
Deux maisons, located in Pontrieux (Département 22), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Pontrieux, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.6976, -3.1596
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089542
In the heart of Pontrieux, these two medieval and Renaissance houses reveal the architectural soul of Brittany: square towers, rendered half-timbering and dressed stonework create a rare dialogue between the 15th and 18th centuries.
History
Nestling in the narrow streets of Pontrieux, a coastal town in the Côtes-d'Armor region crossed by the river Trieux, these two adjoining houses form one of the most unique civil ensembles in Brittany's heritage. Far from being museum-quality reconstructions, they still live to the rhythm of the town, offering the attentive eye a lesson in open-air architecture, where each layer of stone tells the story of several centuries of urban history. The first house, dominated by a robust central square tower, is immediately striking for the balance of its rubble stone façade, punctuated by carved stone surrounds. Far from being a simple utilitarian construction, this ensemble bears witness to a bourgeois ambition that was already apparent in the 15th century: the tower, an element of prestige rather than defence, signalled the prosperity of its patron within the urban fabric. Its five windows on the first floor, soberly framing that of the tower between two large overmantels, give the façade an almost seigniorial dignity. The second house, adjoining at a slight angle that creates a subtle architectural transition, uses an entirely different vocabulary. Its regularly perforated facade, in cut stone with horizontal stringcourses, bears witness to the classical revival of the 18th century. But it is the ground floor, with its large round-arched doorway and wooden posts, as well as the upper storey of rendered half-timbering punctuated by timbers running the length of the façade, that reveal the richness of this hybrid construction, heir to medieval building traditions reinterpreted in the modern era. To visit these two houses is to take the pulse of an ancient Pontrieux, a town of tanners, merchants and seafarers enriched by the flax and hemp trade down the Trieux. Photographers will find striking framing between light and shadow, while lovers of ancient civil architecture will be delighted by the facades, a veritable treatise in stone on the evolution of techniques and tastes in Brittany.
Architecture
The first house illustrates 15th-century Breton civil architecture at its best: a facade of granite rubble, a material that is ubiquitous in Lower Brittany, punctuated by ashlar surrounds carefully aligned with the bays. The central square tower, a structuring element of the composition, organises the facade into a triptych: a central door flanked by two openings on either side on the ground floor, and a row of five windows on the first floor, with the window in the tower set between two large full overhangs that accentuate the effect of massiveness and verticality. The second house, separated from the first by a slight angle, adopts a different, later vocabulary. Its regularly perforated cut stone façade is punctuated by horizontal string courses at floor level, a common technique in classical French architecture for emphasising the stratification of levels. The ground floor opens with a sober and noble round-arched doorway with thick bonding, accompanied by wooden posts. The rendered half-timbered upper storey - a technique in which a timber frame is filled with cob or mortar - betrays older building traditions, probably inherited from a construction phase prior to the 18th century or from a deliberate economy of materials. Timber framing runs horizontally along the entire length of the facade, at several levels, forming a network of runners that give visual structure to the whole. Two dormer windows punctuate the second floor, illuminating the attic space under a double-pitched roof typical of Breton architecture.
Related Figures
Marchands du Trégor (XVe siècle) — commanditaires probables de la première maison, enrichis par le commerce des toiles de linNotables pontrieux (XVIIIe siècle) — propriétaires de la seconde maison, reflet de la bourgeoisie commerçante bretonneAndré Malraux — ministre des Affaires culturelles dont la politique patrimoniale permit l'inscription de 1964Architectes des Bâtiments de France — garants de la conservation de l'ensemble depuis l'inscription MH
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Deux maisons located?
Deux maisons is located in Pontrieux, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Deux maisons built?
Deux maisons dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Deux maisons open to visitors?
Deux maisons is currently closed to visitors.