Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house of Montaigne, located at 23 rue de la Rousselle in Bordeaux, is a 15th century building, partially renovated in the 18th century. This building, which has been listed as a historical monument since 1991, belonged from the first half of the 16th century to the family of Montaigne, which owned a vast set of houses and warehouses along the streets of Rousselle and Sarlac. Behind its eighteenth-century façade, the house preserves medieval architectural elements, including a murated arcade, a false mantle fireplace, and a door to a stair turret decorated with a gothic ogival arch.

Michel de Montaigne, born in this house in 1533, lived there several times, notably between 1565 and 1570, and then from 1581 to 1585, a period corresponding to his mandate as mayor of Bordeaux. The polygonal turret, visible from the first floor, lost its original staircase, but remains as evidence of the civil defensive architecture of the period. In front of this turret, a quadripartite dogive vaulted oratory, with a pendant key, opens onto the inner courtyard with an arc with a white limestone and a vermiculate grey stone.

The premises at the back of the court were probably former warehouses, reflecting the family's commercial activity. The building, the fireplace, the 15th century walled door, the stair turret and the old ground floor pavement are the elements protected by the 1991 inscription. These remains illustrate both the home life of an affluent family of the Bordeaux Renaissance and the architectural transformations that the building has undergone over the centuries.

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