Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house, built between the 16th and 17th centuries, is located at 8 rue des Merciers in La Rochelle. It illustrates the civil architecture of this period, marked by classical influences and developments related to the city's port activities. Its doric column staircase and facades, classified in 1923, bear witness to a refined craftsmanship.

According to the sources, this house was built for a shipowner during the reign of Henry IV, between the sieges of La Rochelle from 1572 and 1628. The interior courtyard, now covered, originally separated the main body of adjoining buildings open on Rue Saint-Michel. These extensions reflect the evolution of residential and professional needs in a growing maritime city.

The classification of historical monuments, which was issued by decree of 4 April 1923, concerns facades on street and courtyard, stairways, recast walls and roofs. This status protects an architectural heritage representative of La Rochelle's urban and economic history, linked to trade and navigation.

Protected elements, such as the doric column supporting the stairway angle, reveal aesthetic and functional research. The house thus embodies the mixture between bourgeois habitat and commercial activity, characteristic of the French ports of the modern era.

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