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Origin and history

The Coulon House, formerly called Écu de Bretagne, is an emblematic building of the Second French Renaissance, built between 1540 and 1550 in the Bourg-le-Compte district of Nogent-le-Rotrou. Located at the n°5 of the Rue du Paty, it illustrates the desire to transcribe the ancient orders under Italian influence, with stylistic elements such as polygonal columns, an open gallery and bays in the middle. The building, composed of three buildings organized around a courtyard, also includes a vaulted cell cellar, potentially anterior (XIIIth–XIVth century). His name would come from a stained glass window with the arms of the house of Brittany, now gone.

The documented history of the house begins in the 18th century. In 1748, it belonged to Jean Goislard, Sieur Dupuy, a lawyer in Parliament and adviser to the king, before being sold in 1755 to Gabriel Legindre, merchant-frigier. An act of 1765 described his organization, and the cadastre of 1811 revealed a U-shaped plan with four buildings. Acquired in 1890 by Alfred-Emilien Coulon, the street façade was rebuilt between 1890 and 1900. Ranked as a Historic Monument in 1993, the building now belongs to the municipality of Nogent-le-Rotrou, with protected elements such as the courtyard facades, the staircase and the cellar.

Coulon House embodies the reconstruction of the village after the Hundred Years War, in an area close to the Château Saint-Jean. Its architecture combines limestone, brick and flat tiles, reflecting local techniques. The cellar, dug in the hillside, suggests an earlier occupation of the site. Although modified in the 19th century, his court retained an original Renaissance ordinance, with a back wing and antique-inspired decorations. Its inscription in the Historical Monuments highlights its heritage value, linked to the urban and architectural history of the Perche.

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