Maison de Quimper
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison de Quimper, located in Quimper (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
- Quimper, Département 29, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.9955, -4.1035
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00090361
In the heart of old Quimper, this 16th-century prebendal house combines a rubble stone ground floor with a timber-framed upper floor, topped by a turret typical of Breton Renaissance architecture.
History
Nestling in one of Quimper's oldest districts, this prebendal house is one of the rare surviving examples of Breton civil architecture from the 16th and 17th centuries. Its composite silhouette, where the sturdy stone of the ground floor meets the apparent lightness of the timber-framed upper storey, epitomises the transition between the late Middle Ages and the first signs of the Renaissance in Lower Brittany. What immediately sets this house apart from the rest of Quimper's heritage is its corbelled turret, a slender appendage that once signalled the rank and function of its occupants. In Breton episcopal cities, houses with turrets were the distinctive sign of the canons and prebendaries - clerics with an ecclesiastical income - who lived in the immediate vicinity of Saint-Corentin cathedral. The term "prébendale" is therefore not anecdotal: it anchors this building in the orbit of the city's spiritual and intellectual power. A tour of the exterior reveals the care taken with the details of the carpentry, with pieces of wood carved and assembled using traditional Cornouaille methods. The narrow streets that surround it offer breathtaking views over the whole of this historic district, where half-timbered facades follow stone mansions in an architectural continuum that is rare in Finistère. Listed twice as a Monument Historique, first in 1951 and then in 1969, the house is protected to ensure that its authentic character is preserved. It is an integral part of the heritage fabric of Quimper, a town of art and history whose medieval centre is one of the best preserved in the Greater West. For those who can look beyond the shop windows, it reveals an urban Brittany of astonishing historical density.
Architecture
The building's architectural composition is based on two superimposed levels, typical of Breton Renaissance buildings. The ground floor, built of granite rubble, provides a solid, durable foundation, whose rustic structure contrasts deliberately with the lightness of the upper floor. The upper storey is timber-framed: an oak framework, with sloping and horizontal timbers forming a network visible from the street, filled in the gaps between a cob- or brick-based hoarding. This material duality is not just aesthetic - it reflects a rational approach to construction, typical of Breton towns where granite is ubiquitous, but cutting it is long and costly. The most remarkable feature of the façade is undoubtedly the corbelled corner turret. Projecting above the bare wall, it rests on a series of sculpted corbels and houses a spiral staircase, a typical feature of houses with pretensions in the episcopal towns of Cornwall. This type of turret, found in other Breton towns such as Morlaix and Vannes, saved floor space while visually signalling the occupant's social hierarchy. The roof, with its steep slope as is customary in Brittany to shed heavy rain, was originally to be covered in slate, the dominant material in Finistère since the 15th century. The composition as a whole bears witness to a high level of local craftsmanship, halfway between the late Gothic tradition and the early influences of the Renaissance, the echoes of which reached Brittany via the trade routes and episcopal building sites.
Related Figures
Chanoines du chapitre cathédral de Quimper (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle) — occupants prébendiers de la demeureÉvêques de Cornouaille — autorité spirituelle et foncière ayant présidé à la construction du quartier canonialProsper Mérimée — inspecteur général des Monuments Historiques, dont l'action nationale posa les bases du recensement du patrimoine bretonArchitectes des Bâtiments de France du Finistère — responsables de la surveillance et de la préservation du bâtiment depuis son inscription en 1951
Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison de Quimper located?
Maison de Quimper is located in Quimper, Département 29 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Maison de Quimper built?
Maison de Quimper dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Maison de Quimper open to visitors?
Maison de Quimper is currently closed to visitors.