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Origin and history

Guilhem House is an 18th-century building located in Carcassonne, in the current Occitanie region. It replaces a convent of Augustine sisters founded in the 15th century, whose location was acquired in 1735 by François Roques. The latter had the current building erected, characterized by a two-storey symmetrical façade on the ground floor, pierced by seven arched bays on a level. The keys of the windows, carved in Louis XV consoles, and the forged iron supports of the first floor illustrate the rock style of the era. The portal, slightly protruding, features a bearded mask framed with shells and foliage in bas-relief, a decorative element typical of the eighteenth century.

The property is organized around an inner courtyard divided by a wrought iron gate, whose bars alternate with diamond spades and flat tendrils. The pilasters of the vantals, decorated with volutes and roses, lead to a garden where remains a wall fountain, today cemented but maintaining its original mask. The main staircase, located in the right wing, features an openwork sheet metal ramp with spiral and vegetal motifs, characteristic of local craftsmanship. The elements protected by the 1948 decree — facade, supports, ramps and fountains — underline the heritage value of this complex, a witness to the post-medieval Carcassonian urbanization.

The building thus blends religious heritage, with its Conventual location, and bourgeois ambition, visible in its refined decorations. Its architecture reflects the social transformations of Carcassonne in the Enlightenment, where the aristocracy and the merchant bourgeoisie mark the city of their homes. The Guilhem House, by its partial preservation and its stylistic details, offers a representative example of the adaptation of urban spaces to new secular uses after the Catholic Reformation.

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