Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The building located 7 rue des Filles-Dieu in Angers, built between the second half of the 15th century and the first quarter of the 16th century, is distinguished by its hybrid architecture. Its tower of staircase in hors-oeuvre, built in tuffeau, dominates the corner of two streets and it is worth its historical name, the Crescent, still used in the eighteenth century. The adjacent two-storey, two-storey facade combines a wood pan (originally torchied, replaced by brick in 1962) and a tufted ground floor, while the masonries use shale. The blankets include two long panels for the house and a polygonal roof for the tower.

The denomination the Crescent could evoke the eponymous order founded in 1448 by René d'Anjou, although no document confirms a direct link between the monument and this chivalry. The weapons of St.Mauritius, accompanied by the motto loz in crescent, adorn the outside door of the staircase, adding to this hypothesis. Gothic door vantals, probably reported during the 1962 restoration led by architect Henri Enguehard, close the entrance and the interior entrances of the tower. This restoration has also modified the torchi-density for a decorative brick hurdles and restored several windows in their original state.

Ranked a historic monument in 1961 for its facades on streets and roofs, the building now belongs to a private company. Its present state results from modern interventions, such as the disappearance of the torchi or the addition of Gothic elements, while preserving traces of its medieval past. No archive specifies its original use, but its structure suggests a typical urban home of the period, possibly linked to artisanal or commercial activities, frequent in the Angevin city centres in the late Middle Ages.

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