Maison de Lantillac
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison de Lantillac, located in Lantillac (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
- Lantillac, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.9587, -2.6493
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091349
In Lantillac, this 16th-century Renaissance house conceals a granite gateway of rare elegance: pilasters with Ionic capitals, diamond-shaped frieze and pediment with spiral hooks, a precious testimony to the art of Breton stonework.
History
In the heart of the Morbihan region, the village of Lantillac conceals a discreet gem that lovers of French Renaissance architecture won't want to miss: a middle-class house dating from the third quarter of the 16th century, which has been protected as a Historic Monument since 1934. While its overall silhouette is in keeping with the tradition of Breton rural dwellings, it is its entrance gate that reveals the uniqueness of the place and amply justifies the heritage recognition it enjoys. What immediately sets this house apart from its neighbours is the remarkable sophistication of its door frame. In a region where granite often dictates a sober, almost severe aesthetic, the owner of this house chose to call on a mason-sculptor who was perfectly familiar with the innovations coming out of Italy and relayed by the great royal worksites in the Loire. The result is a portal of great stylistic coherence, where each architectural element responds to a rigorous decorative logic. The experience of visiting it, even from the outside, is a real surprise. As you approach the gateway, your eye is first drawn to the softness of the basket-handle arch, that flat, elegant curve characteristic of the early French Renaissance. Then the details gradually come into their own: the pilasters with Ionic scroll capitals, the regular entablature, the frieze punctuated with geometric lozenges, and finally the pediment crowned with a series of spiral hooks that give the whole an almost Baroque movement before its time. Lantillac itself, a small commune in the Pontivy region of Central Brittany, offers an unspoilt setting, far from the tourist hustle and bustle of the Morbihan coast. A visit to this house is a natural part of a wider exploration of Breton civil architecture in the 16th century, a period of great prosperity for many local families, reflected in the stonework and remarkable creative emulation. It's a stop that will appeal as much to the art historian as to the curious walker.
Architecture
The house at Lantillac belongs to the category of 16th-century Breton bourgeois homes, built in local granite using traditional methods - a compact main building, two storeys and a steeply pitched roof typical of the Armorican climate. What really sets it apart is the design of its entrance portal, a veritable manifesto of Renaissance architecture in rural Morbihan. The frame of the main door forms a remarkably coherent sculpted whole. The basket-handle arch, an emblematic form of the early French Renaissance inherited from the late flamboyant Gothic period, rests on two pilasters whose scrolled capitals are directly inspired by the Ionic order codified by Vitruvius and rediscovered by Italian architects. The entablature above is adorned with a frieze of lozenges in relief, a recurring geometric motif in the decorative repertoire of the French Renaissance. Finally, the crowning glory takes the form of a pediment, the distinctive feature of which is its spiral hooks, giving the whole an upward movement that enlivens the composition and gives it a surprising lightness given the hardness of the material. This entire decorative programme is executed in grey granite from the Pontivy region, a material that is difficult to work because of its hardness, which makes the precision and finesse of the sculptures all the more remarkable. The technical mastery of the stonemason who created this portal testifies to serious training, probably acquired on the major building sites of the Breton or Norman Renaissance. The ensemble is an architectural document of the utmost importance for understanding the spread of the Renaissance style in the rural towns of inland Brittany in the 16th century.
Related Figures
Commanditaire anonyme (XVIe siècle) — bourgeois aisé de la région de Pontivy, probablement officier, marchand ou propriétaire terrien, initiateur de la construction vers 1550-1575Maître tailleur de pierre inconnu (XVIe siècle) — sculpteur de talent ayant réalisé le portail Renaissance, formé aux techniques décoratives issues des chantiers de la LoireInspecteurs des Monuments Historiques (1934) — responsables de l'identification et de la protection de la maison, garants de sa survie patrimoniale
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison de Lantillac located?
Maison de Lantillac is located in Lantillac, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Maison de Lantillac built?
Maison de Lantillac dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Maison de Lantillac open to visitors?
Maison de Lantillac is currently closed to visitors.