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Origin and history

The house of Juste, located at 17 rue Paul-Louis-Courier in the Old Towers, is a remarkable example of Renaissance architecture in France. Built by Juste de Juste, son of Antoine Juste, it belongs to a family of Florentine sculptors settled in France at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The house is characterized by an axis perpendicular to the street, a lintel door decorated with rinceaux and bulged with the Italian coat of arms of the Just, as well as a window on the first floor framed with pilasters and surmounted by Renaissance decoration. Inside, a corridor leads to a courtyard, and a spiral staircase serves the floors, where original elements such as an 18th-century wooden fireplace and 16th-century painted beams remain.

The building, often mistakenly associated with the Just brothers (or Giusti) for its carved frieze, actually reveals a French influence in its realization. The bay on the first floor was enlarged and equipped with a balcony grille in the eighteenth century, while the interior preserves traces of the initial developments, like a fireplace of the first quarter of the sixteenth century. The house, classified as a historic monument in 1948 for its eastern façade, roof, staircase and fireplace, bears witness to the fusion of Italian and French styles during the Renaissance, in a historical district of Tours.

Local tradition wrongly attributes the frieze of the facade to the Just brothers, while the experts agree on a realization by French artisans. This detail underlines the importance of the house as a symbol of the artistic exchanges between Italy and the Touraine at that time. The protected elements, such as the spiral staircase and interior decorations, offer an overview of the home life and architectural know-how of the 16th and 17th centuries. The house remains a valuable testimony of the Italian cultural heritage in the Loire Valley, integrated into the urban heritage of Tours.

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