Immeuble
MonumentHidden Treasure
Immeuble, located in Quimper (Département 29), 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
- Quimper, Département 29, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.9941, -4.1026
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00090359
In the heart of Quimper, this group of 17th-century houses boasts half-timbered walls, corbelled ceilings and rendered rubble stone, creating a heritage setting set against the majestic spires of Saint-Corentin Cathedral.
History
As you stroll through the cobbled streets of old Quimper, this group of four 17th-century houses is one of the most evocative urban tableaux in historic Brittany. Each has its own architectural personality, yet the whole forms a coherent whole, a living testimony to an art of building that skilfully combined stone, wood and slate according to the constraints of the land and the resources of the owners. It's not an isolated monument, it's an entire fragment of a town, preserved in its original state for centuries. What makes this complex truly unique is its special relationship with Saint-Corentin Cathedral. From the street, the Gothic spires rise above the slate roofs in a natural framing that many photographers seek out. This visual relationship, noted as early as the 1953 protection order, gives these ordinary buildings an almost scenographic dimension: they are the essential foreground to one of the city's most beautiful skylines. The visitor experience is that of an intimate stroll through the medieval fabric of Quimper. You'll see the corbels rising from storey to storey, touch the blackened half-timbering, the whitewashed granite rubble and the carefully carved window surrounds. There's no tourist attraction here, no excessive museification: the houses are inhabited, alive, rooted in the everyday life of the town. The surrounding environment adds to the charm of the whole. The historic centre of Quimper, with the Odet and its two arms flowing through it, offers an intimate, artistic atmosphere that is hard to find in larger cities. These four houses are part of a network of narrow streets where each façade tells a story, and each gable bears the memory of the craftsmen, merchants and middle-class citizens who made the Cornish capital prosperous in centuries gone by.
Architecture
The ensemble is characterised by the juxtaposition of four different construction methods, reflecting the diversity of Breton practices in the 17th century. Stone - local granite - stands side by side with timber-framed walls in an alternation that reveals the economic possibilities and aesthetic choices of each owner. The lime-rendered rubble stone facades contrast with the exposed half-timbering, while the ashlar window surrounds add a note of classical sobriety to elevations that remain fundamentally inherited from the Middle Ages. The most striking architectural feature remains the system of corbels on the third house, where each storey projects slightly over the street, creating an overhanging silhouette characteristic of old Breton towns. The slate-clad gable of the last building illustrates the ingenuity of Cornish builders in coping with the Atlantic climate: slate, which provides excellent protection against damp, is used here to clad vertically a surface which, exposed to westerly winds, would quickly have suffered if left bare. The overall composition, despite the heterogeneity of the methods used, achieves a visual unity conferred by the harmonious proportions, the steeply pitched slate roofs and the natural colour palette of the local materials.
Related Figures
Artisans charpentiers quimpérois du XVIIe siècle, auteurs des pans de bois et encorbellementsNégociants et bourgeois cornouaillais, commanditaires probables de ces maisons de villeInspecteurs des Monuments Historiques, signataires de l'arrêté de protection du 13 mars 1953Architectes des Bâtiments de France en poste à Quimper, garants de la préservation de l'ensemble depuis 1953
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Immeuble located?
Immeuble is located in Quimper, Département 29 department, Bretagne 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.