Maison d'angle à pans de bois
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison d'angle à pans de bois, located in Saint-Brieuc (Département 22), 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
- Saint-Brieuc, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.5145, -2.7644
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089599
A survivor of medieval fires, this timber-framed house stands proudly in the old town of Saint-Brieuc, a rare example of 15th-16th century Breton civil architecture.
History
In the heart of Saint-Brieuc, at the corner of the narrow streets in the historic centre, stands one of the few timber-framed houses still standing in the town. Protected as a Historic Monument since 1935, this house alone embodies the architectural memory of a prosperous Breton trading town, at a time when carved wood and corbelling punctuated every façade of the old town. What makes this house truly singular is its corner position: a sought-after urban location, which meant that particular care had to be taken with the two sides of the façade visible from the street. Breton carpenters of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance used all their skills here, playing with the moulded runners, sculpted corner posts and corbelled recesses that give the building its distinctive look. To stand in front of this house is to engage in a direct dialogue with the vanished medieval town. The wooden structure, with its wattle and daub or brick infill, forms a lively, almost warm façade, which the centuries have tilted slightly without ever breaking. The attentive visitor will spot traces of past daily life: brackets, geometric or plant motifs, and the Breton way of working local oak to give it an almost monumental dignity. The surrounding area is a delight to explore. Saint-Brieuc, a city of trade and cathedral, has long maintained a dense urban fabric, which was largely destroyed by successive fires and the transformations of the 19th century. This timber-framed house therefore belongs to a very rare group, alongside a few other survivors that can be found here and there in the old quarters, offering the curious walker a window on the Brittany of merchants and craftsmen.
Architecture
The timber-framed house in Saint-Brieuc illustrates the most typical features of Breton civil architecture from the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Its structure is based on a framework of solid oak posts, assembled using mortise and tenon joints in the local carpentry tradition, with the voids filled in with cob or brick walling. The elevation, probably two or three storeys high, is organised according to the corbelled principle: each storey overhangs slightly onto the street, a process that increased the living space while protecting pedestrians and shopfronts from the run-off of the Breton rains. The corner of the building is the most distinctive architectural feature. The corner post - the centrepiece of every timber-framed corner house - carries all the symbolic and decorative weight of the building. This vertical post, often carved with geometric motifs, plant scrolls or stylised human figures in the Breton tradition, visually marks the junction of the two facades and asserts the status of the house in the urban landscape. The horizontal runners, which run along the base of each storey, are probably moulded, adding to the visual richness of the whole. The steeply pitched roof, in keeping with Breton custom in the face of the region's heavy rainfall, is probably covered in slate, the dominant roofing material in the Côtes-d'Armor region from the 16th century onwards. The openings in the facade - mullioned or transomed windows in the best-preserved examples from this period - allow light to filter into the main rooms. The overall impression is one of organic solidity, typical of wooden buildings, where each piece seems to have been carved to fit naturally into a coherent whole.
Related Figures
Les charpentiers briochins des XVe-XVIe siècles, artisans anonymes à l'origine de la structureLes marchands de lin et de chanvre du pays de Saint-Brieuc, probables commanditaires de ce type de demeureLes évêques de Saint-Brieuc, dont l'influence urbaine façonna le tissu architectural du centre-ville médiévalLes inspecteurs des Monuments Historiques des années 1930, qui identifièrent et protégèrent la maison en 1935Anatole Le Braz, écrivain breton (1859-1926), figure intellectuelle qui contribua à la valorisation du patrimoine architectural et culturel de Bretagne
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison d'angle à pans de bois located?
Maison d'angle à pans de bois is located in Saint-Brieuc, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Maison d'angle à pans de bois built?
Maison d'angle à pans de bois dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Maison d'angle à pans de bois open to visitors?
Maison d'angle à pans de bois is currently closed to visitors.
