Maison
Monument
Maison, 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
- 50.2930, 2.7807
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00108047
In the heart of Arras' Grand-Place, these two 17th-century houses house vaulted cellars on columns and ancestral frameworks, intact witnesses of the Flemish bourgeois lifestyle of the Ancien Régime.
History
On the corner of the rue du Pignon-Bigarré and the Grand-Place d'Arras, the houses at numbers 51 and 53 form a remarkably coherent architectural ensemble, surviving intact the great upheavals of history. Built in the last quarter of the 17th century, they are part of the tradition of civil architecture in Arras, marked by the influence of the Spanish Netherlands and the building culture of the master masons of northern France. Their presence side by side, at a strategic corner of the town's most emblematic square, makes them an exceptional double testament to town planning in the modern era. What makes these houses truly singular is the degree to which their interiors have been preserved. While the facade on the Grand-Place has survived the centuries, retaining most of its original features, the depths of the building conceal unsuspected treasures: period solid timber frames, courtyard constructions inherited from the Renaissance, and sixteenth-century doors that remind us that the history of these walls goes back well beyond their last reconstruction. Under the cobblestones, vaulted cellars resting on elegant columns with capitals bear witness to a craftsmanship that has now disappeared. A comparison of the current land register with the historic plot shows that these two houses have remained virtually unchanged from their original layout. Such fidelity to the original layout is rare in a town that suffered the ravages of the First World War bombing raids, the memory of which is still fresh in Arras. 51-53 Grand-Place is thus an island of permanence in a largely rebuilt urban fabric. For heritage lovers, a visit to these houses is a plunge into the continuity of time. Behind the orderly façades of the Grand-Place, the attentive visitor will be able to detect the successive strata of a living architecture: the medieval cellar, the Renaissance courtyard, the Baroque façade. Arras, whose Grand-Place is listed as one of the most beautiful in France, offers here one of its most authentic and untrodden chapters.
Architecture
The architecture of the houses at 51 and 53 Grand-Place is in keeping with the Flemish Baroque vocabulary that characterises all the façades of the Grand-Place in Arras, which is ranked as one of the most homogenous in Northern Europe. Built at the end of the 17th century, these two houses display the distinctive features of the Arras building tradition: multi-storey elevations punctuated by pilasters, large cross bays, stepped or scrolled gables inherited from the Dutch influence, and careful treatment of the local limestone ashlar on the street façade. Their location at the corner of rue du Pignon-Bigarré gives the ensemble a distinctive visibility and a backward-facing composition, accentuating the urban presence of these two houses in the landscape of the square. The very name of the street - "Pignon-Bigarré" - evokes the decorative richness of the facades with polychrome or sculpted gables that once characterised this district. In plan, the two houses have retained their narrow, deep plots, typical of medieval urban housing estates, with a relatively narrow street frontage and significant development towards the inner courtyard. Inside, the richness of the heritage is revealed in the details: solid oak roof timbers from the period, sober and robust, cover the main volumes. The courtyards are home to Renaissance buildings, including moulded 16th-century doors that bear witness to a rare architectural sedimentation. In the basement, the barrel-vaulted cellars resting on columns with carved capitals are the hidden jewel of the complex, reminding us that the economic life of Arras was played out as much underground as at street level.
Related Figures
Louis XIV — dont le traité de Nimègue (1678) confirma la souveraineté française sur Arras, contexte direct de la reconstruction des maisonsVauban — ingénieur militaire qui refortifia Arras après 1678 et influença l'urbanisme de la ville sous Louis XIVMaximilien de Robespierre — né à Arras en 1758, il connut dès l'enfance la Grand-Place et ses maisons bourgeoisesArtisans maçons artésiens du XVIIe siècle — anonymes bâtisseurs formés à la tradition flamande, auteurs de ces façades baroques
Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison located?
Maison is located in Arras, Pas-de-Calais department, Hauts-de-France region, France.
When was Maison built?
Maison dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Maison open to visitors?
Maison is currently closed to visitors.