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
- 50.2914, 2.7808
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00108026
In the heart of Arras, this building, listed as a Historic Monument since 1920, epitomises Flemish architectural elegance, with its sculpted gabled facades and sandstone arcades characteristic of the Grandes Places in the city of Arras.
History
Arras, capital of the Artois region, is one of France's most remarkable cities for its medieval and baroque civil heritage. Some of the hundreds of buildings lining the Grand'Place and Place des Héros - an exceptional group of Flemish arcaded facades - enjoy special legal protection as Historic Monuments, testifying to the priceless heritage value of their architecture. The building listed in 1920, one of the first waves of heritage protection in the inter-war period, belongs to this corpus of civil buildings that make Arras unique on a national scale. What really sets this building apart is its place in the great tradition of Arras trading houses, whose prosperity was closely linked to the cloth and grain trade. The façades of Arrageoisses are an open book of architecture: each building tells the story of a merchant bourgeoisie attached to prestige and representation, through the modenature of its pilasters, the curvature of its arches and the finesse of its stone cords. A visit to this building - or simply a contemplative pause in front of its facade - is a plunge into a hybrid aesthetic, blending Flemish, Spanish and French influences, the fruit of the many dominations and cultural exchanges that have shaped the Artois region over the centuries. The ground floor arcades, supported by bluish sandstone pillars, create a typical covered gallery effect that gives the squares of Arras their unique atmosphere, halfway between Flanders and the heart of France. The urban setting in which the building is set is itself a spectacle: the 155 gabled houses of the Grand'Place and Place des Héros, listed as a whole, make up one of the largest ensembles of civil Baroque style in Northern Europe. Photographers, history buffs and walkers can be found here at any time of day, captivated by the remarkable coherence of an urban fabric that has survived wars and reconstruction.
Architecture
The building is in the Flemish Baroque style typical of civil buildings in the Artois region, a style recognisable by its scrolled gables, superimposed pilasters punctuating the height of the façade, and mullioned or architraved windows adorned with sculpted motifs. The ground floor, pierced by a semi-circular or basket-handle archway resting on sturdy Artois bluestone pillars, features a covered gallery that is inseparable from the morphology of the Grandes Places. This porticoed layout, inherited from medieval merchant traditions and amplified under the Ibero-Flemish influence of the 17th century, gives the street a remarkably homogenous architectural rhythm. The three- to four-storey elevations feature an elegant vertical progression: the bays are underlined by classical pilasters - Doric on the ground floor, Ionic and Corinthian on the upper levels - creating a harmony of skilful proportions. The most spectacular feature is the stepped or scrolled gable end, which allows each building to display its own identity while remaining part of the continuity of the built front. The materials used - local white limestone, blue sandstone from Artesian quarries and natural slate for the roofs - give the façades their distinctive colour palette, which is both austere and refined. Inside, the traditional layout of the Flemish merchant's house can still be seen in the organisation of the spaces: a vaulted cellar used as a warehouse, a ground floor for commercial purposes, and residential floors organised around a staircase with a wrought-iron or turned-wood banister. Beamed or coffered ceilings, sculpted mantelpieces and sandstone tiles bear witness to the care taken by prosperous patrons to furnish the interiors.
Related Figures
Pierre Paquet — architecte en chef des Monuments Historiques, maître d'œuvre de la reconstruction d'Arras après 1918Eugène Gréber — urbaniste ayant supervisé le plan de reconstruction des Grandes Places d'ArrasMaximilien de Robespierre — enfant d'Arras, dont la vie se déroula dans ce type de cadre urbain bourgeoisLes comtes d'Artois — seigneurs médiévaux dont la politique urbaine favorisa l'essor commercial des placesPhilippe II d'Espagne — sous la domination espagnole duquel se développa le style baroque flamand des façades arrageoissesLouis XIV — dont la conquête de l'Artois en 1659 (traité des Pyrénées) inaugura la période française de la ville
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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.