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
- 50.2905, 2.7787
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00108123
In the heart of the Grand'Place in Arras, this building, listed as a Historic Monument since 1920, embodies Flemish Baroque in all its splendour, with its bluestone and brick façade, scrolled gable and gallery of arcades like no other.
History
Arras is one of the few towns in France to have preserved an almost miraculously coherent Flemish Baroque urban ensemble. Among the buildings that make up this theatre of stone and brick framing the Grand'Place and Place des Héros, some stand out for their age, the quality of their sculpted decoration or the boldness of their scrolled gables. The building listed as a Historic Monument by decree on 15 January 1920 belongs to this exceptional circle: protected very early on, at a time when post-war France was seeking to safeguard what remained standing after the destruction of 1914-1918, it bears witness to the architectural vitality of a town that was one of the most prosperous in the former Southern Netherlands from the 15th to the 17th century. What makes these buildings in Arras truly unique in France is that they are rooted in a building tradition that has few equivalents south of the Belgian border: the combination of red brick and white Lézennes stone, the skilful rhythm of the arcades on the ground floor - which were once used for sheltered trading - and the scalloped silhouette of the stepped or scrolled gables against the Pas-de-Calais sky. Each façade is a manifesto of the Flemish art of living, where ornament is never gratuitous but always conveys a message of prestige and prosperity. To visit this building - or simply to stop in front of it to decipher its façade - is to enter into a dialogue across the centuries with the cloth merchants, notables and aldermen who made Arras' fortune. The arcades on the ground floor, inherited from the model of medieval market squares, invite visitors to stroll under cover, to look up at the richly ornamented upper floors, to perceive in the detail of a capital or cornice the imprint of a local sculptor's workshop. The setting is just as remarkable: the two squares of Arras form an ensemble listed as a picturesque site and regularly cited as one of the finest examples of civil architecture in northern France. The low-angled light of autumn afternoons reveals the relief of the sculptures and the texture of the materials with particular acuity, making this place a paradise for photographers and architecture enthusiasts.
Architecture
The building is in the tradition of Flemish civil architecture as it developed in the former Southern Netherlands between the 15th and 18th centuries. Its facade combines red brick and the region's white limestone - known as Lézennes stone or Hainaut blue stone - in a two-tone monochrome that is characteristic of the building techniques used in Arras. The ground floor is pierced by semi-circular or basket-handle arches resting on squat pillars, a direct legacy of the medieval trading lodges that sheltered businesses from the elements. The upper floors, arranged in regular bays, feature a succession of mullioned or transomed windows, topped by alternating triangular and arched pediments on the upper levels. The carved stone architraves, keystones adorned with mascarons or plant motifs, and horizontal stone stringcourses that punctuate the verticality of the façade bear witness to the mastery of Northern Baroque ornamentation. The scrolled or stepped gable roof - the most spectacular feature and the most photographed - gives the building its distinctive silhouette in the panorama of Arras squares. The roof, steeply pitched in accordance with Nordic practice, is covered in slate or flat tiles depending on the section, with pedimented dormers that extend the vertical dynamism of the façade skywards. Inside, the deep layout on a long, narrow plot - typical of medieval urban plots - organises spaces around an axial corridor or spiral staircase, with barrel-vaulted cellars that sometimes extend under the public square.
Related Figures
Pierre Paquet — architecte en chef des Monuments Historiques, maître d'œuvre de la reconstruction à l'identique des places d'Arras après 1919Maximilien de Robespierre — natif d'Arras (1758), dont la famille habitait un immeuble de la Grand'Place, symbole de la bourgeoisie localeCharles le Téméraire — duc de Bourgogne dont la politique de mécénat contribua à l'essor architectural d'Arras au XVe siècleAlbert de Gondi — gouverneur des Pays-Bas espagnols sous les Habsbourg, dont la présence à Arras favorisa les grandes commandes architecturalesLes échevins d'Arras — magistrats municipaux du XVIIe siècle qui supervisèrent la construction et l'embellissement des façades de la Grand'Place
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.