Immeuble
Monument
Immeuble, located in Arras (Pas-de-Calais), 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
- Arras, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 50.2920, 2.7793
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00108012
In the heart of Arras, this building, listed as a Historic Monument since 1920, embodies the architectural elegance of northern France, with its characteristic brick and white stone facades typical of the Artois region.
History
Arras, capital of the Artois region and jewel of the Hauts-de-France region, is home to an unsuspected wealth of buildings in its urban fabric. In addition to the famous Grand'Place and Place des Héros, whose Flemish Baroque facades are among the most admirable in Northern Europe, the town is home to listed buildings that bear witness to the extraordinary historical density of the area. This building, protected as a Historic Monument by two successive decrees in 1920 and 1921, is part of the architectural tradition of Arras, which blends Flemish, Spanish and French influences. Its dual protection, obtained in the space of just one year, underlines the early and unanimous recognition of its heritage value by the authorities of the time, in a post-war context when the town was just emerging from the massive destruction of 1914-1918. The building blends into the dense urban fabric of Arras, a fortress town with rigorous planning inherited from centuries of successive rule - Burgundian, Spanish and French. Its volumes, materials and proportions interact with the surrounding buildings, contributing to the visual coherence that makes the city so charming. The red brick and white limestone of the region no doubt play their usual part, creating the warm monochrome so characteristic of northern France. To visit this building, or simply contemplate it from the street, is to come into contact with a stratum of the history of Arras that is less exposed than its flagship monuments, but just as precious. It's about understanding how a rebuilt, battered town was able to preserve and honour the architectural features that had survived the turmoil of the 20th century. For lovers of urban heritage, civil architecture and regional history, this building is an essential stop-off point when exploring Arras.
Architecture
The building is part of the civil architectural tradition of northern France, characterised by the combination of brick and white Artois limestone. This duality of materials, typical of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century buildings in Artois, gives the façades a warm, chromatic rhythm, alternating between the ochre-red tones of the brick and the luminous white of the ashlar used for the window surrounds, cornices and decorative elements. The composition of the facade undoubtedly follows the classical canons in force in the region's civil architecture: regular arrangement of bays, well-defined vertical bays, moulded window sills and a neat cornice. The roofs, which are steeply pitched as is customary in this region with its harsh winters, are probably covered in natural slate, a traditional northern material. The potential presence of sculpted dormer windows and a barrel-vaulted cellar - the famous Arrageoisses "boves" dug into the chalk - would add to the archaeological interest of the building. At the time of its construction, the interior must have been fitted out in a way typical of the middle-class homes of the Artois region: stone staircase with turned balusters, ceilings with exposed beams or stuccoed coffered ceilings depending on the period of construction, and fireplaces with sculpted mantels in the main rooms. The dual protection afforded by the Monuments Historiques label suggests that the building has architectural or decorative features of sufficiently remarkable quality and integrity to justify permanent conservation measures.
Related Figures
Maximilien de Robespierre — natif d'Arras, avocat et homme politique, figure centrale de la Révolution française, dont l'empreinte marque toute l'histoire de la villePierre Paquet — architecte en chef des Monuments Historiques, chargé de la reconstruction d'Arras après 1918 et du sauvetage du patrimoine rescapéJoseph-Benoît Guislain — personnalité médicale et intellectuelle arrageoise du XIXe siècle, représentant de l'élite bourgeoise qui habitait ce type d'immeublesLes échevins de la ville d'Arras — magistrats municipaux qui supervisèrent les grands chantiers de construction civile aux XVIIe et XVIIIe sièclesPhilippe II d'Espagne — souverain sous lequel Arras connut une prospérité architecturale significative au XVIe siècle
Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Immeuble located?
Immeuble is located in Arras, Pas-de-Calais department, Hauts-de-France region, France.
When was Immeuble built?
Immeuble dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Immeuble open to visitors?
Immeuble is currently closed to visitors.