Maison dite du Saint-Mitré
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison dite du Saint-Mitré, located in Dinan (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
- Dinan, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.4537, -2.0428
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089116
In the heart of medieval Dinan, the house of Saint-Mitré displays its 16th-century corbels and half-timbering, a striking example of Breton domestic architecture of the Renaissance.
History
Nestling in the labyrinth of cobbled streets for which Dinan is famous, the house known as Saint-Mitré stands out as one of the discreet jewels of 16th-century Breton civil architecture. While the great cathedrals and chateaux may attract much attention, it is in these middle-class residences that the authentic heart of a once prosperous town beats, a trading crossroads between inland Brittany and the Channel ports. What sets the Saint-Mitré house apart is precisely this ability to condense into a single façade all the sophistication of a pivotal period, when the late Gothic style met the first inflections of the French Renaissance. Its successive corbels, characteristic of timber-framed construction in Dinan, project the floors above the street, creating a shadow and a subtle dialogue between the dressed stone of the base and the carved wood of the upper levels. To visit the Maison du Saint-Mitré is to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of a town that, in the 16th century, was one of the busiest trading centres in Brittany. The very name of the building - "Saint-Mitré" - evokes an old sign or a devotion of its first occupants, a common practice in the urban housing of the period when each house bore a name like a popular coat of arms. The surrounding environment amplifies the experience: the remarkably well-preserved old town of Dinan provides a rare setting in which the Saint-Mitré house interacts with other contemporary houses, forming a coherent urban ensemble that photographers and heritage enthusiasts come to explore at any time of day. The play of light at the end of the afternoon, when the setting sun gilds the timber-framed houses, is particularly striking.
Architecture
The Saint-Mitré house is an exemplary example of the Breton building tradition of the first half of the 16th century, based on a combination of stone and wood that is both structural and decorative. The granite base - an omnipresent material in the buildings of Dinan - ensures the robustness of the foundations and the ground floor, while the upper floors use the timber-framed technique: a framework of oak beams and joists, the spaces between which are filled with cob or light masonry. The most spectacular feature of these houses is the corbelling, which consists of projecting each storey beyond the previous one, increasing the height of the living space while creating the silhouette so characteristic of medieval and Renaissance streets. The runners and corner posts are often embellished with mouldings or sculpted motifs - figures' heads, interlacing plants, geometric patterns - which bear witness to the care taken by the carpenters and sculptors of the period in the ornamentation of the load-bearing elements themselves. The roof, which is steeply pitched as is customary in Brittany to protect against heavy rainfall, is covered in slate, a locally quarried material that is omnipresent in Armorican architecture. The mullioned windows, some of which may be original or restored, give rhythm to the façade and recall the late Gothic decorative vocabulary still in use in the early 16th century in provinces far from the great centres of the Italian Renaissance.
Related Figures
Marchands dinannais du XVIe siècle — commanditaires probables de la construction, appartenant à la bourgeoisie commerçante enrichie par le commerce des toiles bretonnesBertrand Du Guesclin — connétable de France né près de Dinan, figure tutélaire de la ville dont l'influence symbolique marque toute l'histoire urbaine dinannaiseAnne de Bretagne — dont l'union à la France (1532) créa le contexte politique propice au renouveau architectural breton du XVIe siècleArchitectes-charpentiers anonymes du XVIe siècle — maîtres de l'art des pans de bois et de l'encorbellement, artisans sans nom dont le génie technique perdure dans la pierre et le boisInspecteurs des Monuments Historiques (1952) — responsables de l'inscription officielle qui assura la protection légale de l'édifice
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison dite du Saint-Mitré located?
Maison dite du Saint-Mitré is located in Dinan, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Maison dite du Saint-Mitré built?
Maison dite du Saint-Mitré dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Maison dite du Saint-Mitré open to visitors?
Maison dite du Saint-Mitré is currently closed to visitors.
