Maison dite du Prince Noir
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison dite du Prince Noir, located in Dinard (Département 35), is a medieval landmark built in the Middle Ages. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Medieval (11th-15th century)
- Location
- Dinard, Département 35, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.6309, -2.0529
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00090541
A medieval vestige of Dinard, this 14th-century house is said to have sheltered the Black Prince during his campaigns in Brittany. Its cut granite stones tell the story of the Hundred Years' War on the Emerald Coast.
History
In the heart of what was once a modest fishing village before becoming the famous seaside resort of Dinard, the Maison du Prince Noir is one of the most precious examples of 14th-century architecture in Ille-et-Vilaine. Listed as a Historic Monument since 1926, it stands in stark contrast to the Belle Époque villas that dominate the Dinard urban landscape today, offering the attentive visitor a fragment of a radically different world. What makes this building truly singular is the density of its historical load within a modest built volume. Unlike the great fortresses or castles of the seigneuries, the medieval house here embodies both popular and military civil architecture - that of the relay stations, temporary dwellings and stopping-off points on the strategic routes of late medieval Brittany. Oral tradition and the very name of the house evoke the presence of Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, known as the Black Prince, son of Edward III of England, whose military campaigns on the continent had a profound effect on the Breton medieval imagination. The experience of visiting the castle is one of direct contact with the raw stone, without the artifice of modern reconstructions. The thick granite walls, typical of Breton construction at the time, impose an immediate physical presence. The volume of this residence reveals the logic of an era when solidity and defence took precedence over comfort and ostentation. The building is set in an environment where the town of Dinard has managed to preserve some of the evidence of its pre-tourist past. To visit the Maison du Prince Noir is to mentally superimpose two Dinards: the medieval Breton town and the 19th-century fashionable resort - a rare vertigo of time on this Emerald Coast.
Architecture
The house known as the Black Prince's House is typical of 14th-century Breton civil architecture, combining defensive functionality with ornamental sobriety. The building is constructed from local granite, a material that is ubiquitous in medieval buildings in Ille-et-Vilaine, and whose hardness and resistance to the elements explain the exceptional longevity of the construction. The thick walls, probably between 80 centimetres and one metre thick, provide both thermal insulation and structural strength, meeting the requirements of a harsh coastal climate. The openings, typical of the Breton civil Gothic style of the period, feature mullioned windows carved into the granite, framed by prismatic or braced mouldings depending on the level. The entrance door probably has a pointed arch or basket-handle frame, a common feature of Breton domestic architecture in the second half of the 14th century. The roof, with its steep slope to help the region's heavy rainfall run off, was traditionally covered in local slate. Inside, the layout is based on a simple plan centred around a large, multi-purpose lower hall and one or two upstairs rooms accessed by a granite spiral staircase. Traces of fireplaces with straight lintels or pyramid-shaped hoods are likely, in keeping with the custom of seigneurial or bourgeois housing of the period in northern Brittany. Taken as a whole, this is a precious and relatively rare example of civil Gothic domestic architecture in a Breton coastal urban context.
Related Figures
Édouard de Woodstock, dit le Prince Noir (1330-1376) — prince de Galles, héros de la Guerre de Cent Ans, dont la tradition locale relie le nom à cet édificeÉdouard III d'Angleterre (1312-1377) — roi d'Angleterre, père du Prince Noir, acteur majeur de la politique bretonne au XIVe siècleJean de Montfort (1295-1345) — prétendant au duché de Bretagne soutenu par les Anglais, dont les alliés fréquentaient les côtes nord de la BretagneJean IV de Bretagne (1339-1399) — duc de Bretagne allié aux Anglais, sous le règne duquel l'édifice fut vraisemblablement construit ou occupé
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison dite du Prince Noir located?
Maison dite du Prince Noir is located in Dinard, Département 35 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Maison dite du Prince Noir built?
Maison dite du Prince Noir dates back to a period built in the Middle Ages (11th-15th century).
Is Maison dite du Prince Noir open to visitors?
Maison dite du Prince Noir is currently closed to visitors.
