Maisons
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maisons, located in Tours (Indre-et-Loire), 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
- Tours, Indre-et-Loire, Centre-Val de Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.3942, 0.6821
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00098216
In the heart of Tours, these 15th-century half-timbered houses reveal a folk statuary of rare finesse: saints, apostles and royal figures carved into the wood of the corbelled pillars.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
In the medieval urban fabric of Tours, these timber-framed houses are one of the most eloquent examples of late Gothic civil architecture in Touraine. Their facades, punctuated by the successive projections of the corbelled storeys, are a veritable page of stone and carved wood, emerging from a past when the craftsmen of Tours competed with the great royal building sites on the Loire. What makes these residences absolutely unique is the quality and diversity of their carvings. The load-bearing pillars, corner posts and window surrounds are adorned with a veritable open-air museum: a Holy Family, a king shrugging off his crown, a pensive monk, apostles identifiable by their attributes, and saints with expressive faces. This abundance of iconography, usually reserved for the façades of cathedrals or ecclesiastical rood screens, bears witness here to an ambitious middle-class commission, anxious to display its piety and culture on the very threshold of its home. The visitor experience is surprisingly close to these works of medieval daily life. Unlike the châteaux of the Loire Valley, which impose the distance of grandeur, these houses invite you to experience the 15th century at eye level. Beneath the patina of age, you can make out the skilful hands of the Touraine carpenters and sculptors, the versatile craftsmen who fashioned everything from a main beam to the face of an apostle. The historic setting of old Tours heightens the emotion. Nestling in a district that still preserves the memory of the city's heyday - Tours was the capital of the kingdom under Louis XI - these houses interact with the Renaissance mansions and cobbled streets that serve as their backdrop. Attentive visitors will take the time to look up and decipher this novel of stone and oak, and observe how later modifications - enlarged windows, removed mullions - tell the story of the transformations in architectural taste over the centuries.
Architecture
These houses are a perfect example of the timber-framed technique that was dominant in 15th-century civil construction in Touraine. The upper storeys are corbelled above the street, an arrangement that maximises living space while creating a dynamic facade rhythm characteristic of prosperous medieval towns. The structure is covered in slate, a typical Middle Loire roofing style that contrasts soberly with the dark wood of the half-timbering. The real architectural interest lies in the sculptural treatment of the load-bearing elements. The pillars supporting the corbels, the corner posts and the window surrounds are entirely covered with densely-packed figurative decoration: the Holy Family, a royal figure taking off his hair, a monk, apostles and saints follow one another in an iconography that is both pious and narrative. This type of carved decoration on timber framing, known as "sculpted posts", is a speciality of late Gothic craftsmanship in Loire towns, and can be found in a few rare examples preserved in Blois, Vendôme and Chinon. The interior still has its original small-panelled doors, soberly moulded in accordance with the custom of the time, which bear witness to the continuity between the care taken with the exterior decoration and the quality of the interior fittings. Later modifications - the enlargement of certain bays in the 17th century, the removal of wooden mullions - can be clearly seen in the morphology of the openings, providing an educational document on the evolution of building practices and domestic customs over several centuries.
Related Figures
Louis XI — roi de France dont la présence à Tours au XVe siècle stimule le développement urbain et le mécénat bourgeois localArtisans charpentiers-sculpteurs tourangeaux anonymes du XVe siècle — auteurs présumés du remarquable programme sculpté des façadesBourgeois commanditaires anonymes du XVe siècle — propriétaires bâtisseurs liés au commerce ou aux offices royaux tourangeaux
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maisons located?
Maisons is located in Tours, Indre-et-Loire department, Centre-Val de Loire 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.