Maison de Carhaix-Plouguer
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison de Carhaix-Plouguer, located in Carhaix-Plouguer (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
- Carhaix-Plouguer, Département 29, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.2759, -3.5744
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089864
A Renaissance gem in central Brittany, this house dating from the third quarter of the 16th century in Carhaix-Plouguer is a delight to behold, with its sculpted facades and mullioned windows bearing witness to exceptional Breton craftsmanship.
History
In the heart of Carhaix-Plouguer, a crossroads town in inland Finistère whose name evokes ancient Gallo-Roman stones, this Renaissance house is one of the few surviving examples of 16th-century architecture in the centre of Breton Cornwall. Built around 1550-1575, it belongs to the generation of bourgeois and merchant mansions that flourished in prosperous Breton towns, boosted by the trade in linen, cloth and seigneurial rights. What sets this building apart from its regional contemporaries is the quality of its decorative treatment: the elaborate window surrounds, pedimented dormers and moulded stringcourses that run horizontally across the façade all reveal the work of Breton stonemasons who were fully conversant with the innovations coming out of the Loire and Paris. The local granite, dense and dark, lends the ensemble a particular gravity, far removed from the lightness of the limestone of the Loire Renaissance châteaux - and yet the same ornamental grace is expressed here, translated into a different mineral language. To visit this house is to slip into the intimacy of a well-to-do family in 16th-century inland Brittany: merchants, notaries or royal officers who, by calling on the best craftsmen in the region, affirmed their social standing and their openness to new fashions. The human scale of the building, set against the urban fabric of Carhaix, makes it an accessible monument that can be discovered almost by surprise as you turn a corner. The urban setting of Carhaix-Plouguer makes for an even richer visit. An ancient Vorgium and capital of the Osismes, the town boasts a rich heritage that this Renaissance house crowns with elegance. Just a stone's throw from the Monts d'Arrée and the Nantes-Brest canal, it forms part of a remarkably coherent Breton heritage itinerary, ideal for lovers of architecture and local history.
Architecture
The house is in the tradition of 16th-century Breton middle-class homes, built of carefully cut local granite. The street facade, sober in its overall layout, is enlivened by stone mullioned windows set in two or three storeys, with moulded frames that testify to a high level of technical expertise. The corners are treated with carefully matched granite chains, and a cornice or projecting stringcourse marks the separation of the levels, in a decorative style typical of the Breton Renaissance. The roof dormers, probably with triangular or curvilinear pediments, are the most expressly Renaissance element of the composition: they are reminiscent of the solutions adopted in contemporary manor houses and town halls in Finistère and Côtes-d'Armor, such as those found in Morlaix and Quimper. The entrance door, framed by pilasters or a sculpted brace, confirms the patron's social status while indicating that the building belonged to a pivotal moment in Breton architectural history. Inside, the house would have had low vaulted or floored rooms on the ground floor, reserved for domestic or commercial activities, and reception rooms upstairs, accessible by a spiral staircase housed in a turret or in the thickness of the wall. The whole was a compact volume, adapted to the narrow urban plot typical of Breton town centres, combining economy of means with a concern for elegance.
Related Figures
Commanditaire bourgeois local (marchand ou officier de justice, identité non établie, vers 1550-1575)Tailleur de pierre breton anonyme, auteur du décor Renaissance de la façadeInspecteur des Monuments Historiques ayant instruit l'inscription de 1932Propriétaires successifs des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, familles de notables carhaisiens
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison de Carhaix-Plouguer located?
Maison de Carhaix-Plouguer is located in Carhaix-Plouguer, Département 29 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Maison de Carhaix-Plouguer built?
Maison de Carhaix-Plouguer dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Maison de Carhaix-Plouguer open to visitors?
Maison de Carhaix-Plouguer is currently closed to visitors.