Immeuble
MonumentHidden Treasure
Immeuble, located in Bergerac (Dordogne), 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
- Bergerac, Dordogne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 44.8500, 0.4830
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00082376
At the heart of Bergerac, this Renaissance building conceals an exceptional wooden gallery: Ionic columns, pendentive arches and herringbone brickwork make up an ensemble that is exceedingly rare in the Périgord.
History
In the old town of Bergerac, where half-timbered houses and medieval alleyways form a picture-postcard backdrop, this 16th-century building stands out for its architectural uniqueness, which often escapes the hurried eye. Its covered wooden gallery, the real centrepiece of the composition, displays a surprising elegance in a town of wine merchants and winemakers. What makes this building absolutely remarkable is the convergence of a number of craftsmen's skills in the service of an ambitious aesthetic programme. The wooden framework, with its sculpted pendentives and arched joints, bears witness to a technical mastery that goes far beyond simple utilitarian construction. Two Ionic columns - a direct borrowing from the vocabulary of the Italian Renaissance - support the whole, clearly signalling the patron's cultural ambitions. The herringbone brickwork adds an extra decorative dimension, playing with the light and shadows cast at different times of the day. This highly sophisticated graphic motif is part of a building tradition that is rare in the region, giving the building a quasi-experimental character for its time and geographical context. A visit to this building is like a silent history lesson: you can read about the cultural exchanges between south-western France and Renaissance Italy, undoubtedly driven by the trade flows that made Bergerac a prosperous town open to the world. The covered gallery, a transitional space between the intimate and the public, evokes the loggias of Tuscan palaces reinterpreted in the Périgord style. Listed as a Historic Monument since 1948, this building is one of the most precious examples of Renaissance town planning in the Dordogne, and deserves careful attention from anyone with an interest in architecture or local history.
Architecture
The most remarkable feature of this building is undoubtedly its covered wooden gallery, built into the facade or courtyard, whose framework features pendentives and joints forming arches characteristic of Renaissance ornamental vocabulary. This type of carved wooden roof, halfway between the Italian loggia and the half-timbered gallery of the south-west, is extremely rare in the architectural corpus of the Dordogne. The gallery is supported by two Ionic columns, recognisable by their scrolled capitals. This choice of the Ionic order - associated in the classical tradition with elegance and learned sobriety - distinguishes the building from a simple artisanal structure and places it in the register of prestigious architecture. The columns, probably made of painted wood or local limestone, punctuate the space with a measure reminiscent of the porticoes of Northern Italian mansions. The walls of the building have an additional decorative feature: the brickwork is laid in a herringbone pattern, forming a fishbone motif with great visual effect. This technique, known as "appareil en épis", is relatively rare in Périgord civil architecture and reflects the particular care taken with the aesthetics of the facings. Together, the carpentry gallery, Ionic columns and herringbone brickwork make up a building with a stylistic coherence and originality that fully justifies its protection as a Historic Monument.
Related Figures
Commanditaire anonyme du XVIe siècle, probablement un négociant ou officier bergeracois fortunéMaître charpentier inconnu, auteur de la galerie en bois à pendentifs et arcs RenaissanceAndré Malraux, ministre des Affaires culturelles dont l'action a renforcé la politique de protection du patrimoine en France après 1959Inspecteurs des Monuments Historiques ayant instruit la procédure d'inscription en 1948
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Immeuble located?
Immeuble is located in Bergerac, Dordogne department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine 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.
