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
- 50.2918, 2.7810
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00108042
In the heart of Arras, this building, listed as a Historic Monument since 1921, embodies the Flemish soul of the town: a baroque façade in brick and white stone, stepped gables and sculpted ornamentation of rare elegance.
History
Arras, capital of the Pas-de-Calais and former city of the Counts of Artois, is one of the French towns with the best examples of Flemish Baroque civil architecture. Its two main squares - the Grand'Place and the Place des Héros - form one of the most coherent and spectacular urban ensembles in the north of France, and the buildings that line them, most of which are listed or registered, are its most precious asset. The building featured in this fact sheet is fully in keeping with this architectural tradition: built in the canons of Artesian Baroque, it interacts with its neighbours while at the same time asserting its own personality. What sets this building apart is first and foremost the quality of its façade. The rhythmic alternation of pink-orange local brick and white ashlar lends the composition a chromatic vivacity characteristic of the Flemish-Artesian art of building. The engaged pilasters, projecting cornices and stepped or scrolled gables create a play of volumes and cast shadows that the northern light - often low-angled and golden in the late afternoon - enhances magnificently. The visitor experience is inseparable from the stroll through Arras itself. Walking along the covered arcades that run beneath the facades, looking up at the sculpted pediments, spotting the details - mascaron, cartouche, glazed ceramics tucked into a gable - is a pleasure of discovery that is unique to this town. Listed buildings can be appreciated from the square or from the street, taking the time to decipher the composition of each bay. The surrounding setting enhances the interest of the monument. Arras, rebuilt identically after the destruction of the First World War thanks to an exceptional architectural survey effort, offers a virtually intact urban landscape that allows the building to be read not as an isolated object, but as a note in a collective score. It is this overall coherence, rare in France, that has earned the town its reputation as a living conservatory of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century civil architecture.
Architecture
The building belongs to the register of Flemish-Artesian Baroque civil architecture, a style that characterises the vast majority of civil buildings in the squares of Arras. The facade, arranged in regular bays, combines warm-coloured brick and ashlar white stone in a rigorous decorative system: quoins, moulded window surrounds, cornices tiering the levels and stepped or scrolled gable caps are the structural elements of the composition. The mullioned or transomed windows, flanked by pilasters and topped by alternately triangular and arched pediments, introduce a rising vertical rhythm that gives the building a measured elegance. The ground floor, which is traditionally open onto semi-circular arches supported by stone pillars, integrates commercial life into the very heart of the architectural structure, in keeping with a custom that is deeply rooted in the urban culture of the region. The covered arcades, typical of Arras squares, are one of the most distinctive features of this complex and one of the most popular with visitors. The materials used are typical of the region: local brick from Arras brickworks and bluestone or white limestone quarried nearby. Although the precise layout of the interior has not been fully documented, it would have been typical of 17th-18th century town houses, with an arcaded entrance hall, a staircase with a wrought-iron banister, and reception rooms in a row with panelling and moulded ceilings.
Related Figures
Négociants artésiens des XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles, commanditaires probables de l'édificeMaximilien de Robespierre, natif d'Arras (1758-1794), figure liée à l'environnement urbain arrageoisJoseph Leroy de Saint-Arnaud, architecte actif à Arras au XVIIIe siècle, représentatif des bâtisseurs locauxArchitectes des Monuments Historiques de l'entre-deux-guerres, artisans de la reconstruction d'Arras après 1918Pierre Payen, architecte arrageois du XVIIe siècle ayant contribué à la définition du style localPréfet du Pas-de-Calais signataire de la procédure de classement en 1921
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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.