Maison dite L'Ancien Magasin Cornic
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison dite L'Ancien Magasin Cornic, located in Morlaix (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
- Morlaix, Département 29, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.6184, -3.8544
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00090134
Formerly the privateer Charles Cornic's catch house, this sturdy 18th-century granite manor house with its twelve bays overlooks the River Morlaix, and bears witness to the golden age of maritime racing in Brittany.
History
On the banks of the River Morlaix, the Ancien Magasin Cornic stands out as one of the rare tangible architectural traces of the great era of sea racing that made the fortune and fame of the Breton town. This large rectangular granite building, austere and functional, lacks the ornamental appeal of a town house, but it possesses something even rarer: a maritime soul, that of conquered cargoes, festive crews and an entire town living to the rhythm of war catches. What makes this monument truly unique is its original dual purpose. Designed both as a warehouse for goods seized at sea and as a school for mousses, it embodies the whole logic of the privateer economy: take, store, train, leave. The interior, deliberately devoid of partitions on each level, still evokes the storage capacity of a veritable civilian arsenal, capable of holding the most imposing booty. The building offers visitors a striking architectural view from the banks of the river. To the west, twelve large, rhythmic openings open onto the water, like so many eyes turned towards the ships entering the port. This austere, massive river façade contrasts with the discretion of the rear, which is accessed by an external staircase whose sobriety betrays the building's purely practical use. To visit the Ancien Magasin Cornic is to plunge back into Morlaix in the days of its maritime splendour, when Breton privateers stood up to the European naval powers and made their home ports spectacularly rich. The Morlaix setting, with its imposing viaduct as a backdrop and the narrow streets of the old town nearby, gives this place incomparable historical depth.
Architecture
The Magasin Cornic is a large, rectangular, single-storey building above a ground floor, built of cut granite in accordance with 18th-century Breton architectural practices. The building's slightly splayed base gives it a solid visual foundation, evoking the robustness of port and maritime constructions of the period. The overall impression is one of functional mass, with no superfluous ornamentation, typical of utilitarian buildings of the late classical period in Brittany. The western facade, facing the river, is punctuated by twelve large openings, which are the most striking feature of the exterior elevation. These evenly-spaced openings provided light for the vast interior storage areas and functional access to the quays. At the rear, an external staircase provided direct access to the first floor, a practical solution for moving people and goods independently of the lower level. The south gable still bears the remains of an old carriage entrance, which has been bricked up and converted into a window, a valuable indication of how the building's use has changed over the centuries. The interior is striking for its deliberately open character: neither the ground floor nor the first floor originally had any partitions, making the building a single warehouse on each level. This layout, rare in civil architecture of the period, bears witness to a purely logistical approach to the privateer trade. The floors and roof structure, supported by granite gutter walls, were intended to be the only internal structure, giving free rein to the most voluminous cargoes.
Related Figures
Charles Cornic-Dumoulin (1731-1809), corsaire morlaisien, commanditaire du bâtimentLouis XVI, sous le règne duquel furent menées les dernières grandes campagnes de course finistériennesLes armateurs morlaisiens du XVIIIe siècle, partenaires financiers de la course maritimeLes mousses et marins formés dans l'école abritée par le bâtiment
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison dite L'Ancien Magasin Cornic located?
Maison dite L'Ancien Magasin Cornic is located in Morlaix, Département 29 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Maison dite L'Ancien Magasin Cornic built?
Maison dite L'Ancien Magasin Cornic dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Maison dite L'Ancien Magasin Cornic open to visitors?
Maison dite L'Ancien Magasin Cornic is currently closed to visitors.