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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Carreras house, located on Rue Saint-Jean in Villefranche-de-Conflent, is a rare example of 12th century Romanesque civilian housing. Its facade, unseparated, uses marble only for frames, highlighting an economy of means typical of medieval urban buildings. The ground floor features two arches in the middle of the arches with irregular harps, one of which has a shield carved on its key, showing a discreet but symbolic ornamental will.

Upstairs, two gelatinous berries, now deprived of their columnlets, open under slit lintels in the middle of the ring. Their chamfered sizes, decorated with geometrical motifs (half-balls, horn or hut), are based on impostes, revealing local craftsmanship. The last level consists of an open gallery, characteristic of medieval houses intended for community or commercial life on the ground floor.

Classified as a Historic Monument in 1965 for its facade and roof, the Carreras House illustrates the adaptation of Romanesque architecture to domestic needs. Its state of conservation, although partial (disappearance of columns), allows to study the techniques of civil construction in Roussillon in the Middle Ages, in a fortified village like Villefranche-de-Conflent, then under Catalan influence.

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