Maison à arcades du 14e siècle
MonumentHidden Treasure
At the heart of the bastide of Molières, this medieval house from the 14th century displays its broken ogival arcades with rare grace, offering one of the best-preserved examples of Gothic architecture in the Périgord.
History
In the heart of the village of Molières, in the Dordogne, stands a little-known jewel of French medieval civil architecture: a 14th-century Gothic arcaded house, listed as a Historic Monument in 1920, which is one of the few perfectly preserved architectural remains of the former bastide town. In a Périgord landscape where pale limestone dictates the colour of the stones, this residence imposes a silent and singular presence, as if frozen in the amber of history. What immediately sets this house apart from its regional counterparts is the quality of its pointed arches, typical of the civil Gothic style of Languedoc and the South-West. Unlike the roofed houses found in the bastides of Monpazier or Domme, the house at Molières has an architectural structure of exceptional coherence and integrity, which has hardly been altered over the centuries. The geminate window with its two three-lobed arches, resting on a slender central column, is in itself a small masterpiece of medieval stonework: delicate, precise, almost fragile against the robustness of the stone façade. To visit this house is to have the rare experience of direct contact with medieval town planning in all its authenticity. There's no need for reconstructions or intrusive explanatory panels: the stone speaks for itself, with sober eloquence. Passers-by who look up at these arcades immediately perceive the functional and aesthetic logic of the medieval bastide, where the ground floor for shops and residential floors coexisted under the same vaulted ceiling. Molières itself, a fortified town founded in the 13th century and now a quiet little village in the Périgord Pourpre region, offers an ideal setting for a stroll. Between the central square, the unfinished Gothic church and the cobbled streets, the arcaded house is part of a coherent whole that deserves a careful stroll. It's a monument for the discerning curious, for lovers of urban history and civil architecture, far from the crowds but rich in priceless historical depth.
Architecture
The arcaded house at Molières is an exemplary example of 14th-century Gothic civil architecture in the south-west of France. Its facade features a series of pointed arches on the ground floor, typical of the roofs of bastide towns, which enabled merchants to display their wares sheltered from the elements while keeping pedestrian traffic protected. These pointed arches, carved from the local limestone with its characteristic Perigord gold highlights, demonstrate remarkable technical mastery: their regular layout and careful matching reveal the work of a skilled master builder, familiar with the Gothic architectural formulas in use in the region during the 14th century. The most precious element of the composition is undoubtedly the double lancet window with its two three-lobed arches, joined by a framing arch and separated by a slender central column with a carved capital. This feature, inherited from the ecclesiastical Radiant Gothic style but applied here to a civil residence, illustrates the permeability of architectural influences between the sacred and the secular in the Middle Ages. The trilobes that crown each bay add a remarkable decorative lightness to an otherwise sober and austere façade, clearly signalling the patron's social ambitions. The materials used are those of the Périgord building tradition: local limestone, extracted from nearby quarries, makes up most of the masonry. The roof, probably made of canal tiles or "lauzes" according to regional tradition, crowns a two- or three-storey volume typical of medieval bastide housing. The Gothic parts of the building are remarkably intact, making it an invaluable reference point for the study of medieval domestic architecture in Périgord.
Related Figures
Seigneurs de Molières — fondateurs présumés de la bastide au XIIIe siècleComte de Périgord — suzerain sous l'autorité duquel se développa la bastideMaître d'œuvre anonyme du XIVe siècle — architecte artisan auteur des arcades gothiquesBourgeois commanditaire anonyme — propriétaire bâtisseur de la maison au XIVe siècleInspecteurs des Monuments Historiques — artisans du classement de 1920
