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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The building at 4 rue Guérin in Autun (Saône-et-Loire) dates from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is located in an open street at the end of the 18th century to connect the medieval district of Marchaux to the city centre via the Champ-de-Mars square. This route, formerly called rue aux Garins, revealed ancient remains of Augustostodunum, including a mosaic in 1841 and a fragmentary inscription in 1863. Rue Guérin, on an ancient axis, evolved with the suppression of Place Maubert in the 19th century, changing its initial route to the Chapel of La Bondue.

The building houses two remarkable butcher-craftsmen, symbols of the commercial heritage of the period. The Varmenot butcher shop (No. 4), decorated in 1900 style, features mural faiences depicting cattle landscapes and a marble counter. Its interior decoration, inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 1995, is labeled Heritage of the 20th century. The butcher shop Saint-Louis (n°29), also known as the Henriot butcher shop, is distinguished by its Art Nouveau facade in cast iron, marble and glass paintings, in black, blue and gold colours. It is surmounted by a zinc lamprequin and decorated with sculptures of golden cattle, with hooks of tooth-of-wool to hang the meat.

The Art Nouveau facade of the Saint-Louis butcher shop, created by the founders Jules Mareschale and G. Petitdidier (185 rue d'Allemagne in Paris), illustrates the influence of Parisian workshops in the provinces at that time. The two shops, protected for their interior decoration (including ceilings), testify to the golden age of the mouth shops, where aesthetics was used to highlight the products. Their inscription in 1995 underscores their historical and artistic value, in a context where Autun, former Augustodunum, blends ancient heritage with bourgeois architecture of the 19th to 20th centuries.

Guérin Street, named after an old local family linked to the Guérin Tower castle in Couches, also bears the revolutionary name of Pas-de-Charge Street. Its layout, modified in the 19th century with the creation of Mazagran and Bondue streets, reflects the urban transformations of Autun. The building on 4 rue Guérin, with its classified butcheries, thus embodies the transition between the medieval city, the Haussmannian modernization and the development of decorative arts at the turn of the 20th century.

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