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
- 50.2909, 2.7788
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00108134
In the heart of Arras, this building, listed as a Historic Monument since 1921, embodies the Flemish Baroque elegance of white sandstone facades, a discreet jewel of the Grand-Place and Arras' urban heritage.
History
Arras is one of the few towns in France to have preserved such a remarkably coherent urban architectural ensemble. Its two squares - the Grand-Place and the Place des Héros - are among the finest examples of Flemish Baroque architecture outside Belgian Flanders. It is against this exceptional backdrop that we place this building, listed as a Historic Monument by decree on 15 February 1921, one of the first civil buildings in Arras to benefit from such official recognition. The building's distinctive façade is punctuated by pilasters, curvilinear pediments and scrolled gables typical of the Flemish Baroque style that took hold in Arras between the 17th and 18th centuries. Built from local white sandstone, it features the ground-floor arcades that are a distinctive feature of Arras houses, and which in the past enabled merchants to ply their trade sheltered from the elements - an urban tradition inherited from the trading towns of the former Spanish Netherlands. The experience of visiting the building is inseparable from that of Arras' two main squares: strolling under the cobbled arcades, looking up at the height-graded facades, discovering the finely worked stone carvings on the window frames. The building is part of an urban perspective that few French towns can still offer, where each façade interacts with its neighbour in a skilfully orchestrated harmony. The surrounding environment adds to the experience: the lively Artesian market, the café terraces under the vaults, the northern light that subtly plays on the ochre and white hues of the sandstone. Photographers and art history enthusiasts will find inexhaustible material here to capture the deep soul of the Burgundian, Spanish and French Artois - a town at the crossroads of European influences.
Architecture
The building belongs to the Flemish Baroque architectural vocabulary that characterises the urban ensembles of the old towns of the southern Netherlands. The multi-storey facade features semi-circular arches on white sandstone pillars on the ground floor, a distinctive and functional feature of the houses in Arras, which allowed pedestrians to walk around and businesses to operate under cover. This system of covered galleries, unique in France on this scale, gives the squares of Arras an urban atmosphere similar to the great shopping squares of Brussels and Lille. The upper storeys feature characteristic sculpted ornamentation: window surrounds with crossettes, pilasters with composite capitals, moulded cornices and broken pediments with alternating curves and counter-curves. The scrolled gable, an emblematic element of Flemish Baroque, crowns the façade and gives it its recognisable silhouette in the panorama of the squares. The greyish-white sandstone, quarried in the Artesian region, gives the building a luminous tone that responds sensitively to variations in northern light. The interior layout follows the traditional layout of an Arras merchant's house: vaulted cellars in the basement, used for storing goods or produce, retail spaces on the ground floor overlooking the arcades, and middle-class flats on the upper floors, with adjoining rooms and monumental fireplaces. The steeply pitched roofs, covered in slate or flat tiles depending on the region, contribute to the vertical harmony of the façade.
Related Figures
Maximilien de Robespierre — natif d'Arras, figure de la Révolution française, dont l'ascension illustre le milieu bourgeois et négociant des places arrageoisesLes architectes de la reconstruction (1920-1930) — techniciens et maîtres d'œuvre anonymes qui restituèrent fidèlement les façades après les destructions de la Grande GuerreLes maîtres drapiers et négociants arrageois (XVIIe-XVIIIe s.) — commanditaires des façades baroques, dont la fortune textile finança l'embellissement urbainLes tailleurs de pierre artésiens (XVIIe s.) — artisans spécialisés dans le travail du grès blanc, responsables de la remarquable qualité sculpturale des façadesLes Architectes des Bâtiments de France (XXe-XXIe s.) — gardiens modernes de la cohérence patrimoniale de l'ensemble classé d'Arras
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.