Maison du 16e siècle
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison du 16e siècle, located in Rochefort-en-Terre (Département 56), 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
- Rochefort-en-Terre, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.6996, -2.3371
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091640
In the heart of Rochefort-en-Terre, this Renaissance house in Breton granite captivates visitors with its corbelled turret and bracketed portals adorned with brackets and finials - a jewel of 16th-century civil architecture.
History
In the cobbled streets of Rochefort-en-Terre, one of the Most Beautiful Villages in France, stands a house that encapsulates the essence of Breton Renaissance civil architecture. Built entirely of grey granite, this 16th-century house has nothing to envy of the neighbouring manor houses: its slender silhouette, crowned with dormer windows and sculpted gables, is a stone witness to an era when the art of building and the art of living went hand in hand. What is immediately striking is the quality of the carving. The two portals on the ground floor, with their low arches and braces, reveal a mastery of stone that is rare for a bourgeois building. The brackets and finials that adorn them are reminiscent of the workshops of local sculptors who drew on late Gothic influences and the first Renaissance waves from the Loire. Each detail bears witness to a demanding commission from occupants concerned with their prestige. The corbelled turret, grafted onto one of the corners of the façade, adds an almost Romanesque dimension to the whole. This circular projection, typical of Breton canonical residences, offered its occupants a privileged vantage point over the street, while visually reinforcing the monumentality of the façade. It serves as a reminder that, although this is a so-called civil house, it belonged to a clergyman who wanted to live with distinction. The first floor, bathed in light from the wide mullioned windows, reveals a quest for comfort and interior elegance that you wouldn't always expect to find in a Breton village. The attic is distinguished by its sculpted gabled dormers, an ornamental crowning touch that gives the building its distinctive silhouette. To visit this house is to enter into the everyday life of a 16th century that has admirably stood the test of time. In the enchanting setting of Rochefort-en-Terre, with its geraniums in the windows and its nearby medieval fortifications, it is part of a coherent architectural ensemble that makes this village one of the must-see stops in inland Brittany.
Architecture
The architectural composition of this house is typical of 16th-century Breton civil residences, based on a simple but meticulous design. The entire building is built of cut granite, a material that gives the facade the slightly bluish grey hue so typical of inland Morbihan. The corbelled turret, grafted onto one of the corners of the building, is the most remarkable feature of the composition: projecting slightly over the street thanks to a system of stone corbels, it surmounts the two main levels and adds a cylindrical volume that breaks the austerity of the façade while emphasising its verticality. The ground floor opens onto the street through two portals with lowered arches and braces, embellished with carved brackets and fleurons. This late-Gothic ornamental vocabulary, still very much in evidence in 16th-century Breton architecture, bears witness to local workshops that were able to incorporate the influences of the great regional cathedrals while adapting them to the scale of the civil building. The first floor features large windows, probably with mullions, which provided plenty of light for the living areas. Finally, the attic is crowned by sculpted gabled dormers, whose finely-worked decorations repeat, in a lighter style, the ornamental motifs of the lower part of the facade, creating a decorative unity throughout.
Related Figures
Chanoines du chapitre de Rochefort-en-Terre (premiers occupants présumés, XVIe siècle)Chapelains de la collégiale de Rochefort-en-Terre (résidents ecclésiastiques)Alfred Winslow Klots (peintre américain, artisan du renouveau de Rochefort-en-Terre au début du XXe siècle)Inspecteurs des Monuments Historiques (acteurs du classement en 1926)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison du 16e siècle located?
Maison du 16e siècle is located in Rochefort-en-Terre, Département 56 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.