Maison du 16e siècle
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison du 16e siècle, located in Plancoët (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
- Plancoët, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.5201, -2.2291
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089393
A rare vestige of 16th-century timber-framed civil architecture in Plancoët, this Breton house retains a low eaves and a carved strut of remarkable craftsmanship.
History
In the heart of Plancoët, a small town in the Côtes-d'Armor region crossed by the River Arguenon, stands one of the most precious examples of Renaissance Breton bourgeois housing: a 16th-century timber-framed house, listed as a Historic Monument since 1926. Although time has transformed its silhouette, some of its original features have survived the centuries with astonishing integrity, offering the attentive eye evidence of a craftsmanship that has now disappeared. What makes this residence truly unique is the survival of its low eaves and its carved wooden strut. These visible structural elements, decorated according to the decorative canons of the Breton Renaissance, are a reminder that the building was not simply a functional dwelling, but the expression of a social status and a refined architectural culture. The strut, an oblique piece designed to stiffen the framework of the façade, is elevated here to the level of a miniature work of art. Timber-frame architecture, ubiquitous in Renaissance towns in Brittany and Normandy, consisted of erecting an oak framework filled with cob or bricks. This technique allowed great freedom of decorative expression on the exposed timbers, making each façade a manifesto of its owner's identity. In Plancoët, a thriving market town thanks to the river trade and agricultural activities in the hinterland, such houses once lined the main streets. To visit this house is to stand on the threshold of an era when carpenters and woodcarvers worked closely together to transform the very structure of a building into an ornamental support. Observing the carved details of the strut - plant motifs, faces and interlacing patterns characteristic of the Breton Renaissance style - is a veritable open-air art history lesson. Set in the urban fabric of Plancoët, the house benefits from the serene setting of a town that has managed to preserve fragments of its medieval and Renaissance heritage. Just a stone's throw from the Arguenon valley and not far from the Emerald Coast, it is set in an area rich in châteaux, manor houses and religious buildings, making the Malouin hinterland one of the cradles of Breton civil architecture.
Architecture
The house belongs to the well-documented type of timber-framed urban housing, a construction technique that was dominant in northern Brittany and Normandy from the 14th to 17th centuries. The principle is based on a framework of oak beams and posts, assembled using mortise and tenon joints, with the gaps - known as hourdis or infill - filled with cob (a mixture of clay and straw), brick or shale rubble depending on the local resources available. The most remarkable features that have been preserved are the low eaves, a horizontal beam running along the base of the façade or separating two storeys, and the strut, an oblique piece of wood providing stability to the structure while serving as a support for sculpted ornamentation. On this strut, the hand of a 16th-century craftsman carved motifs characteristic of the Breton Renaissance: probably plant figures, interlacing or medallion faces, according to the ornamental repertoire in use in the workshops of Dinan, Saint-Malo and the surrounding area at the time. These sculptures, even if partially altered by time, are still instructive reading for the art historian. The general massing of the house is in keeping with the typical scale of Breton middle-class homes of the Renaissance period: one or two storeys slightly corbelled onto the street, with a steeply pitched roof covered in local slate, a material that is ubiquitous in inland Brittany. The modest proportions of the building do not exclude a certain aesthetic research, particularly noticeable in the woodwork on the façade, a veritable social calling card for its first owner.
Related Figures
Artisans charpentiers-sculpteurs de Plancoët ou de Dinan (XVIe siècle) — auteurs de la jambe de force sculptéeCommanditaire bourgeois anonyme (XVIe siècle) — probablement marchand ou officier de justice, premier propriétaire de la demeureInspecteurs des Beaux-Arts (années 1920) — responsables de l'identification et de la protection de l'édificeHenri II, roi de France — sous son règne s'épanouit en Bretagne le style Renaissance qui inspire l'ornementation de la maison
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison du 16e siècle located?
Maison du 16e siècle is located in Plancoët, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Maison du 16e siècle built?
Maison du 16e siècle dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Maison du 16e siècle open to visitors?
Maison du 16e siècle is currently closed to visitors.