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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Prunet House is an iconic medieval Gothic house in Cordes-sur-Ciel, a town in Tarn, Occitanie. Built in the Middle Ages by a wealthy local family, it embodies Gothic civil architecture, which has earned this village the nickname of "City to the Hundred Wives". It has been listed as a historic monument since 12 July 1923, due to its remarkable façade and roof.

The house is distinguished by its three floors, its arcades on the ground floor, and its groves on the first and second floors, decorated with carved capitals (leafs, animal heads). Inside, a central courtyard allows to admire wooden galleries serving floors. A medieval parchment, the "Sorts of the Apostles", discovered in a wall in the nineteenth century, is now preserved at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

In the 20th century, Prunet had a new vocation: in 1988, Yves Thuriès, Meilleur Ouvrier de France en pastry, installed his workshop and opened in 1989 the museum "Les arts du sucres et du chocolat". This place combines discovery of sweet techniques and visit of a medieval residence, with its fireplaces, galleries and stone stairs.

Dendrochronological analyses dated the construction of the facade between 1269 and 1270, confirming its early medieval origin. The rear body, on the other hand, would date from the 15th century or would have been redesigned at that time. The house is named after Louis Prunet, a Toulousan limonadier who owned it in the 19th century, who discovered the parchment of the "Sorts of the Apostles".

The facade, restored in the 1950s, was the subject of major works in 1989 to house the museum. Today, Prunet House illustrates both medieval architectural heritage and innovative contemporary reappropriation, combining history and exceptional craftsmanship.

Future

The museum "The arts of sugar and chocolate" allows you to discover the techniques of working these materials that become noble in the hands of experts in these matters.

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