Aujourd'hui Aujourd'hui (≈ 2025)
Position de référence.
Heritage classified
Façade: inscription by order of 4 October 1932 - Covered gallery, façade and roof: classification by decree of 31 October 1996
Key figures
Alphonse de Poitiers - Founder of the bastide
Created Villefranche-de-Rouergue in 1256.
Origin and history
The House Soulie, located in Place Notre-Dame in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, is an architectural testimony of the sixteenth century, period of reconstruction after the fire of 1497 that ravaged the central square. Its lateral elevation on the Rue de la Halle retains characteristic elements such as a large rectangular chamfer day and three half-crosses, connected to a stair tower exceeding the roofs. These details suggest a partially antecedent, perhaps 15th century origin, although most of the older remains have disappeared.
Villefranche-de-Rouergue, founded in 1256 by Alphonse de Poitiers as a bastide, followed a typical orthogonal plan with a central square reserved for the market and the church. The city became a prosperous commercial hub, the seat of an archpried from 1302 and with the right to strike royal currency in 1463. The current houses, including the Soulie House, were rebuilt after 1497 respecting the medieval layout, with wood-pan facades gradually replaced by masonry in the eighteenth century, as evidenced by its facade on the square.
The building has a carefully arranged wall head at the western corner, potentially dated from the 13th to 14th centuries, but its attribution remains uncertain due to the lack of in-depth studies. The division into four plots visible on the 1823 cadastre probably reflects a subsequent fractionation of the original property. Partially classified since 1932 (façade) and then 1996 (covered gallery and roof), the Soulie house embodies the urban and architectural evolution of this Rouergate bastide, marked by its merchant past and successive reconstructions.
