Immeuble
MonumentHidden Treasure
Immeuble, located in Issoudun (Indre), 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
- Issoudun, Indre, Centre-Val de Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 46.9485, 1.9935
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00097359
Formerly the Templar apothecary's in Issoudun, this medieval double dwelling with steep gables conceals a flamboyant Gothic staircase turret adorned with an exceptional gable with curly cabbages.
© Wikimedia Commons / Wikipedia
History
In the heart of Issoudun, a town steeped in history in the Berry region, stand two tall medieval houses that the centuries have almost spared. Set against each other under their characteristic pointed roofs, they form a rare ensemble in the Indre urban landscape, bearing witness to a type of Gothic civil architecture that few examples of have survived revolutions and wars intact. In 1987, the building was listed as a Historic Monument, confirming a heritage value that local residents had long sensed. What immediately distinguishes this building from its neighbours is the freestanding stair turret that rises between the two main buildings like a link between two distinct souls. The doorway leading to it is crowned with a remarkably fine bracketed gable, embellished with curly cabbages and flanked by slender pinnacles. This flamboyant Gothic composition, added at the end of the 15th century, reveals the aesthetic ambitions of the owners of the time, eager to show off their standing in the town. A visit to the exterior of the building offers a real lesson in the archaeology of buildings. If you look closely, the façades reveal the successive layers of alterations carried out between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries: enlarged openings, altered windows, re-cut lintels. Each period has left its mark, without ever completely obliterating the original medieval silhouette, giving the whole a rare authenticity and a precious historical legibility. Issoudun itself is well worth a visit. A former royal town disputed between the Kings of France and the Dukes of England in the Middle Ages, it has preserved a coherent medieval heritage in which this Templar house has a natural place. With the Tour Blanche, the municipal museum and the Saint-Roch hospice close by, you can spend a whole day exploring the heart of Berry, far from the beaten track.
Architecture
The building takes the form of two adjoining medieval buildings, topped by steeply pitched roofs and finished off with sharp gables typical of the Gothic civil architecture of central France. This slender silhouette, set out into the street, is reminiscent of the gabled houses found in the towns of the former Berry region and the Loire Valley, which were a coherent architectural type in the 13th-15th centuries. The structure is probably built of local limestone masonry, the dominant material in this part of the Indre region. The most remarkable architectural feature is the freestanding stair turret, set between the two dwellings and projecting slightly from the facade. It houses a spiral staircase serving the superimposed levels and bears, at its foot, the flamboyant Gothic doorway that is the decorative jewel of the building. This doorway features an accolade - an arch in the form of a double inverted curve characteristic of the flamboyant style - enriched with sculpted curly cabbages and flanked by two slender pinnacles. The quality of execution of these finely detailed sculpted elements points to a workshop that perfectly mastered the formal repertoire of the late 15th century. The façades show the visible stratification of several centuries of interventions: enlarged bays, windows with reworked lintels, modern openings that fit into the original medieval framework. Despite these alterations, the overall massing has remained sufficiently intact for the building to retain its evocative power and legibility within the urban fabric of Issoudun.
Related Figures
Jacques de Molay — dernier grand maître de l'ordre du Temple, dont les commanderies géraient des apothicaireries semblables à celle d'IssoudunPhilippe IV le Bel — roi de France qui ordonna la dissolution de l'ordre du Temple en 1307, mettant fin à la gestion templière de l'édificeHonoré de Balzac — auteur du roman 'La Rabouilleuse' (1842), dont l'action se déroule à Issoudun, ville qu'il dépeint avec une précision topographique évoquant ce quartier médiéval
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Immeuble located?
Immeuble is located in Issoudun, Indre department, Centre-Val de Loire 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.