Timeline

Origin and history

The house at 10 Renan Street in Tréguier is a remarkable example of 16th century Breton civil architecture. Built in wooden panels, it features a deep plan with two rooms per level up to the first floor. Its street façade, on the ground floor on strong posts resting on stone solins, is characteristic of the merchant houses of the era. The floors and the attic, in corbellation on beams, are supported by a complex frame of poles, sandstones and counterselling pieces arranged in chevrons and cross of Saint-André.

The interior distribution is organised around a screw staircase, partly made of stone up to the first floor, and then made of wood, housed in a square tower in semi-outwork. This staircase serves rooms structured around a cross-sectional split wall, separating street spaces from courtyard spaces. On the ground floor, a fireplace remains in the back room of the shop, while on the first floor, a bedroom on the courtyard retains its original fireplace on the east side wall. The attic also houses a rustic fireplace integrated with the West Wall.

This house, probably built in the second half of the 16th century, illustrates the know-how of the artisans of the period. Its façade is distinguished by prominent corbellations, whose beams heads and legs remain visible. The two windows per level, placed close to the central support rooms, had the floors leaving a large axial fog. Initially, access to the stairway was likely via a side corridor from the public road, but the current entrance door between two windows could result from a post-Ligue war change.

The masonry side walls, designed as a fire barrier, bear witness to the precautions taken against fires in a neighbourhood where the adjoining houses were also made of wood. Classified as a Historical Monument since 1964 for its facades and roofs, this former merchant house reflects the commercial activity of Tréguier, a port and major episcopal town of the 16th century Brittany.

The location of the house at the bottom of Renan Street (now Ernest-Renan Street) suggests its integration into a dense and dynamic urban fabric. Architectural elements, such as exposed beams and corbellations, emphasize both a utilitarian function and an aesthetic will, typical of bourgeois homes of the era. The absence of major modifications, except for the possible repositioning of the front door, makes it possible to keep a clear reading of its original organisation.

Finally, this house embodies the civil architectural heritage of the Breton Renaissance, a period marked by an economic boom and a diversification of wooden panels. Its classification among the Historical Monuments in 1964 preserved a precious testimony of the construction techniques and way of life of the tregor merchants in the 16th century.

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