Maisons
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maisons, located in Beaumont (Dordogne), 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
- Beaumont, Dordogne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 44.7693, 0.7668
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00082352
In the heart of Beaumont-du-Périgord, these medieval houses built into the ancient ramparts form one of the best-preserved urban ensembles in the 13th-century Périgord bastide.
History
Nestling in the narrow streets of Beaumont-du-Périgord, one of the finest English bastides in Périgord Pourpre, these medieval houses are an exceptional architectural testimony to urban life in the Middle Ages. Their uniqueness lies in a rare and striking feature: some of them rest directly on the town's ancient medieval ramparts, integrating the fortification as the very foundation of the civil habitat. This marriage of defensive and domestic architecture is a perfect illustration of the gradual densification of medieval bastides, where every stone in the fortified perimeter became, over time, a support for daily life. Together, they form a coherent sequence of buildings that gives a walk through Beaumont a rare depth of time. The facades, marked by the passage of centuries, preserve the mullioned openings, corbelling and limestone bonding typical of medieval Périgord architecture. Walking along these houses is like walking along what was once the impassable boundary between the protected village and the dangers outside. The visitor experience is intimate and authentic: no crowds or excessive tourist displays, but living, inhabited architecture that can be discovered on foot, as you stroll along the medieval streets. Attentive visitors will be able to make out the foundations of the old ramparts at the bottom of the façades, which are slightly more massive and of a more robust construction than the parts built later. This ensemble is part of a remarkable urban context, that of Beaumont, founded in 1272 by Lucas de Thanay on behalf of King Edward I of England. The nearby church of Saint-Front, an imposing Gothic fortress, and the characteristic checkerboard layout of the bastide complete a medieval setting that is rare in France. This is one of the most discreet and authentic jewels of the Périgord Pourpre.
Architecture
The buildings are characterised by the medieval domestic architecture typical of southern Périgord, using local limestone cut into regular rubble or large blocks for the oldest parts. The load-bearing walls of the houses are quite thick, a direct legacy of their position on the curtain walls of the medieval ramparts, which were up to one or two metres wide in the best-preserved sections. This thickness gave the houses a remarkable thermal inertia, much appreciated in the winters of the Périgord region. The facades still have traces of the stone mullioned openings typical of the 14th and 15th centuries, segmental-arched or bracketed lintels, and corbels that made it possible to increase the living space on the upper floors without encroaching on the alleyway. The roofs, covered in canal tiles or lauzes depending on the building, have moderate slopes in keeping with Périgord building traditions. The most remarkable architectural feature remains the junction between the rampart wall and the dividing walls of the houses: in several places, the massive stone base of the medieval fortification is still visible to the naked eye, forming an older, more robust foundation on which the foundations of the houses rest. This visible stratigraphic stacking makes these houses an ideal object of study for archaeologists and historians of medieval architecture.
Related Figures
Édouard Ier d'Angleterre — roi d'Angleterre et duc d'Aquitaine, fondateur de la bastide de Beaumont en 1272Lucas de Thanay — sénéchal d'Édouard Ier, chargé de la création et de l'organisation de la bastideLucas de Thanay — maître d'œuvre administratif de la fondation de Beaumont-du-PérigordHabitants médiévaux anonymes — artisans et marchands qui, du XIIIe au XVe siècle, édifièrent leurs demeures contre les rempartsInspecteurs des Monuments Historiques du XXe siècle — qui reconnurent la valeur patrimoniale de l'ensemble et obtinrent son inscription en 1952
Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maisons located?
Maisons is located in Beaumont, Dordogne department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, France.
When was Maisons built?
Maisons dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Maisons open to visitors?
Maisons is currently closed to visitors.