Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The building of Cordes-sur-Ciel, built between the 13th and 16th centuries, consists of a main body on street with arcades of shops on the ground floor and two floors. Its sober façade features grooved windows bound by cords, some of which were rebuilt before 1970. At the back, a trapezoidal courtyard lined with galleries on the first and second floors leads to a rear body incorporating a salient against the old ramparts. A vaulted cellar and ceilings supported by a master beam, whose central column has been moved, testify to its structural evolution. Plaster niches and carved heads on the west façade add to its historic character.

The building is part of a medieval urban complex linking the fortified gate to the Place de la Bride, between the northern ramparts and the Grande-Rue. As early as the 14th century, buildings with shops in broken arches lined up along this artery. The dendrochronology dates back to the felling of beams on the first level of the base and on the ground floor of winter 1290–91, suggesting a construction around the 1290s. Subsequent adjustments, particularly in the 20th century, partially erased the traces of successive transformations, although an in-depth study might reveal more.

Ranked Historic Monument in 1973 for its facades and roofs, the building retains defensive elements of the first Cordes enclosure. Its spatial organization — passageway, wooden and screw stairs, bunk rooms — reflects an adaptation to topographical constraints and commercial and residential needs. The garden in the east and the carved decorations underline its status as an easy residence, typical of medieval occitan civil architecture.

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