Maison, dite de Jeanne d'Arc
MonumentHidden Treasure
In the heart of Aubigny-sur-Nère, this 16th-century residence is enchanting with its timber-framed facades adorned with Saint Andrew's crosses and its sculpted bays with finely carved wooden jambs, witness to a Franco-Scottish alliance that is unique in Berry.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
Tucked away in the narrow streets of Aubigny-sur-Nère, a small town in the Cher department whose history is resolutely Scottish, the house known as Joan of Arc's house is one of the finest 16th-century civil residences to have survived in Berry. Its double face - a street façade of rustic simplicity and a courtyard façade of surprising ornamental richness - makes it a monument in a class of its own, one that deserves to be discovered, like a book whose austere first pages give way to flamboyant illumination. The façade facing the street is striking for its traditional, almost austere character: a combination of cob and half-timbering punctuated by wooden St Andrew's crosses, an omnipresent motif in the vernacular architecture of the region, but here charged with a particular symbolic resonance, since Scotland has made this diagonal cross its national emblem. The bays, framed by carved wooden jambs, give the whole an unexpected lightness for a middle-class residence of the period. It is when you cross the porch that the house reveals all its uniqueness. The inner courtyard reveals facades of a completely different kind: moulded arches, sculpted bays and decorative compositions of a finesse that evokes the great workshops of the neighbouring Loire region. The entrance door, crowned by a late-Gothic brace, is decorated with wooden panels, the central panel of which depicts a female figure that local tradition readily identifies as Joan of Arc - even if the building's sixteenth-century date makes this attribution symbolic rather than historical. To visit this house is to plunge into the intimacy of a town that was for centuries a Scottish enclave on French soil. Aubigny-sur-Nère, given to the Stuarts by Charles VII as a reward for their loyalty, has preserved everywhere the traces of an alliance that wars and centuries have not erased. The house known as Jeanne d'Arc's, with the Stuart shield still visible on its façade, is a reminder of this history. For the attentive visitor, the building is a lesson in vernacular French Renaissance architecture in a middle-class environment, far from the splendour of the Loire châteaux, but with a precious authenticity. The patina of the carved woodwork, the lightness of the braces and the modesty of the interior courtyard form a picture of rare coherence, rightly protected since 1926.
Architecture
The house known as Jeanne d'Arc's is laid out in an L-shape, typical of 16th-century urban middle-class residences: a main building facing the street and a second building facing the courtyard, with a private space between them that was the heart of domestic life. This bipolar organisation - sober public facade, ornate private courtyard - reflects a conception of social representation typical of the French Renaissance in provincial settings. The street façade illustrates the building tradition of the Berry region, with its timber-framed walls and wattle-and-daub infill, punctuated by wooden crosses of Saint Andrew - a motif that is both structural and decorative, referring to the emblems of the Scottish alliance. The bays, framed by carved wooden uprights, add a note of refinement without excess, in keeping with the restraint of a facade overlooking the public highway. The interior courtyard, on the other hand, reveals a decorative programme of much greater ambition, characteristic of the late flamboyant style with early Renaissance influences: moulded arches, bays with jambs sculpted with plant and geometric motifs, spandrels evoking the work of contemporary Loire workshops. The entrance door is the centrepiece of this ensemble: its segmental arch, a legacy of the flamboyant Gothic style, surmounts carved wooden panels, the central panel of which depicts a medieval figure, surrounded by panels of finely carved ornamental motifs. The Stuart shield, now burnt down, probably occupied a position of honour on this courtyard façade.
Related Figures
John Stewart of Darnley — premier seigneur écossais d'Aubigny, bénéficiaire du don de Charles VII en 1423Charles VII — roi de France qui offrit Aubigny aux Stuart en récompense de leur aide militaireBéraud Stuart d'Aubigny — seigneur d'Aubigny (1452-1508), figure militaire majeure sous Louis XII, probable contemporain de la constructionJeanne d'Arc — héroïne nationale (vers 1412-1431) dont le souvenir est attaché par la tradition locale à la figure sculptée de la porteRobert Stuart d'Aubigny — dernier seigneur Stuart d'Aubigny, mort sans héritier en 1567, sous le règne duquel la maison fut probablement construite ou achevée
