Timeline

Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Hotel des Trois-Marchands, located in Gençay, New Aquitaine, is a remarkable example of medieval civil architecture dating from the second half of the 15th century. This monument, modified over the centuries (especially in the 19th century), consists of two adjoining buildings, with a gable-on-street façade and an inner courtyard pierced with sill windows. Its rectangular plan, enlarged by an appendix in return of square, reflects the successive transformations while retaining original Gothic elements, such as prismatic mouldings or lamp asses adorned with incised crosses.

Gençay, the capital of a town in the 10th century and then of a chestnutry dependent on the Count of Poitou, was an active shopping spot in the Middle Ages. The hotel, probably linked to this market prosperity, houses remarkable interiors: four rooms spread over two levels, two on courtyard with monumental painted chimneys, while the rooms on street keep dust windows and a vegetable garden. A screw staircase, accessible by a sliding door and surmounted by a braid, connects the floors, showing the care taken to the internal traffic.

Ranked Historic Monument by order of 13 June 1991, the building has undergone various occupations over time, partially altering its structure. Despite these transformations, it preserves major architectural features, such as the front-on-court window and the carved decorations of the doors. Today owned by the municipality, its present state allows to understand the evolution of a medieval bourgeois residence, between residential function and symbol of local economic dynamism.

The location of the hotel, Place du Marché in Gençay, highlights its anchoring in the historic urban fabric. The cartographic accuracy, considered "a priori satisfactory" (note 6/10), confirms its location in the heart of the city, near the medieval commercial axes. The sources, from Monumentum and Merimée data, attest to its heritage importance in the Department of Vienna, formerly attached to the Poitou-Charentes.

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