Hôtel de Surcouf (ancien Hôtel de Beaugeard)
MonumentHidden Treasure
Hôtel de Surcouf (ancien Hôtel de Beaugeard), located in Saint-Malo (Département 35), 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
- Saint-Malo, Département 35, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.6464, -2.0264
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00090819
This granite house from Saint-Malo was the home of the legendary privateer Robert Surcouf, with its austere, haughty slate façade - and a chimney stump adorned with a sundial engraved in his hand.
History
In the heart of Saint-Malo's inner city, the Hôtel de Surcouf - formerly the Hôtel de Beaugeard - is a strikingly sober embodiment of the architectural ideal of the privateer city at the turn of the 18th century. Planted in a dense urban fabric, on the corner of a cobbled street that is never spared the spray, the building imposes its bluish granite silhouette without seeking grandiloquence. Its elegance lies in this very restraint. The dressed façade of number 1, carved from granite with the rigour typical of Malouin craftsmen, rises to high slate roofs from which massive chimney stacks protrude. One of them conceals a detail that makes the place so special: a small sundial, thought to have been made by Robert Surcouf himself, engraved or assembled by his expert hands in navigation and measuring instruments. This tiny astronomical object, perched above the town, sums up the man himself: a calculating and adventurous spirit. To visit the Hôtel de Surcouf is to slip into the shoes of a wealthy shipowner who contemplated the sea without ever quite turning his back on land. You can't visit the interior of the building, but its façade and immediate surroundings are well worth a visit. Lovers of maritime history will discover a world that has disappeared: that of the sailors who became rich through racing and returned to build their fortunes in stone in the best fortified town in Brittany. The surrounding district, which grew out of Saint-Malo's second expansion between 1716 and 1725, is a coherent ensemble of classically styled middle-class residences. You can sense the collective ambition of a city intent on competing with the great European maritime centres. The Hôtel de Surcouf, listed as a Historic Monument since 1942, remains one of the best-preserved witnesses to this pivotal period, between the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the rise of the great trading companies.
Architecture
The Hôtel de Surcouf is fully in keeping with the classical French architectural vocabulary as it was adapted to the constraints and resources of Saint-Malo in the early 18th century. The main facade, in carefully dressed granite, has a sober, rhythmic layout: regular bays of windows with carefully carved frames, straight or slightly arched lintels depending on the level, and a vertical composition underlined by the high slate roofs typical of coastal Brittany. These roofs are one of the most striking features of the silhouette. Slender and steeply pitched, in keeping with a building tradition dictated as much by the rainy climate as by local taste, they are crowned with massive granite chimney stacks. One of these stacks bears a sundial, a rare detail that gives the building an almost instrumental dimension, halfway between domestic architecture and nautical equipment. This type of astronomical decoration integrated into the masonry is characteristic of the erudite spirit of the sailors and shipwrights of Saint Malo in the late Grand Siècle. The ensemble belongs to the body of houses designed or supervised by the engineer Garangeau as part of the second expansion of Saint-Malo. As such, it shares a consistent scale and proportions with its immediate neighbours, forming a homogeneous built front that bears witness to genuine urban planning thinking. Granite, a favourite material in the region, gives the façade a grey tint with bluish highlights that changes with the light - silvery in the Breton sunshine, almost anthracite under the heavy skies of the Atlantic.
Related Figures
Robert Surcouf (1773-1827) — corsaire et armateur malouin, propriétaire et habitant célèbre de l'hôtelFamille de Beaugeard — premiers propriétaires, armateurs et notables malouins du XVIIIe siècleGarangeau (Siméon de Garengeau, 1647-1741) — ingénieur militaire, auteur présumé des plans du second accroissement de Saint-MaloVauban (1633-1707) — superviseur des fortifications de Saint-Malo, mentor de Garangeau et instigateur de la politique d'expansion urbaine
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Hôtel de Surcouf (ancien Hôtel de Beaugeard) located?
Hôtel de Surcouf (ancien Hôtel de Beaugeard) is located in Saint-Malo, Département 35 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Hôtel de Surcouf (ancien Hôtel de Beaugeard) built?
Hôtel de Surcouf (ancien Hôtel de Beaugeard) dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Hôtel de Surcouf (ancien Hôtel de Beaugeard) open to visitors?
Hôtel de Surcouf (ancien Hôtel de Beaugeard) is currently closed to visitors.
