Maison double
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison double, located in Montargis (Loiret), 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
- Montargis, Loiret, Centre-Val de Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.9978, 2.7342
- Mérimée Reference
- PA45000036
In the heart of Montargis, this 16th-century double house captivates visitors with its timber-framed facade featuring diamond-shaped trelliswork and its sumptuous flamboyant doorway with its exceptionally fine plant scrolls.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
Nestling in the urban fabric of Montargis, a town nicknamed the "Venice of the Gâtinais" for its many canals, the Maison Double is one of the most precious examples of Renaissance civil architecture in the Centre-Val de Loire region. Built in the third quarter of the 16th century, its facade is discreetly elegant, with carved wood and masonry striking a skilful balance. What makes this building truly unique is its double dwelling layout: behind a unified façade are actually two separate dwellings, each originally with its own shop on the ground floor. This layout, once common in prosperous market towns, has almost entirely disappeared from the French urban landscape. The Maison Double in Montargis is a miraculous example of this layout, which has remained largely unchanged for five centuries. The visit begins as soon as you cross the threshold, in front of a central flamboyant door of remarkable craftsmanship: scrolls, stylised foliage and mouldings bear witness to the skills of local stonemasons at a time when the Italian Renaissance was just beginning to influence late Gothic traditions. A corridor leads to the interior staircase, whose three low-arched doors are another lapidary gem often overlooked by hurried visitors. The urban setting of Montargis, with its medieval alleyways and half-timbered facades, magnifies the monument and invites visitors to take a wider heritage walk. The Maison Double is part of a coherent itinerary linking the château, the museums and the banks of the canals, offering lovers of architecture a chance to immerse themselves in several centuries of condensed urban history. Photographers and artists will find the interplay of wooden lozenges a surprisingly modern graphic subject.
Architecture
The street-facing façade of the Maison Double is composed of a timber-framed structure with a diamond latticework, a decorative and structural motif typical of 16th-century regional carpentry. This screen façade, stretched like an embroidery between two masonry eaves walls, gives the building a graphic, rhythmic appearance, where the diagonals of the wood create a repetitive rhombus pattern of great visual modernity. The infill slabs, probably made of cob or brick, provide thermal and acoustic insulation for the dwellings. The architectural highlight of the composition is undoubtedly the central "flamboyant" doorway: framed by accolade mouldings, it is decorated with scrolls and stylised foliage finely chiselled into the stone. This decoration hesitates elegantly between the late Gothic style - with its characteristic curves and counter-curves - and the beginnings of Renaissance vocabulary. To its right, a second, smaller door opened onto the shop, a symmetry that was to be repeated on the left in keeping with the principle of a double dwelling. The interior reveals a stairwell served by three ashlar low-arched doors, the proportions and profile of the mouldings of which confirm that they date from the third quarter of the 16th century. This staircase serves the two dwelling units from a shared corridor, an ingenious device that optimises living space while preserving the independence of the occupants.
Related Figures
Commanditaire anonyme du XVIe siècle (marchand ou bourgeois montargois ayant financé la construction)Tailleurs de pierre locaux ayant sculpté la porte flamboyante (atelier non identifié, Gâtinais, vers 1550-1575)Charpentiers régionaux auteurs de l'ossature en pan de bois à treillage losangéRenaud de Montargis (seigneur médiéval lié au développement urbain de la ville)Successive propriétaires et marchands ayant animé les boutiques du rez-de-chaussée aux XVIe-XVIIe siècles
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison double located?
Maison double is located in Montargis, Loiret department, Centre-Val de Loire region, France.
When was Maison double built?
Maison double dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Maison double open to visitors?
Maison double is currently closed to visitors.