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Origin and history

The Rey House, located in Capbreton, Landes, dates from the 15th century, when the city's seaport was still active and prosperous. This wooden and turf building, with its corbelled floor decorated with Saint Andrew's cross, illustrates the civil architecture of the period. His name comes from the oral tradition of the stay of Henry of Navarre (future Henri IV) in 1583, invited by the Jurat Ponteils, although this historical link is not documented by contemporary written sources.

The main façade on Lartigau Street combines a reinforced masonry ground floor and a half-timbered floor, typical of late medieval buildings. The partially restored sill and cross-section windows recall the easy status of original owners, probably linked to maritime commerce. The house, classified as a historic monument in 1978, has retained its original rectangular plan and its frame in hollow tiles, despite subsequent interior developments.

Capbreton, then a major fishing port in the south-west, drew its wealth from the maritime trade before the sensibly progressive from its estuary. The Rey House, with its defensive structure (protection bahut, posts arming the gable), reflects this time when buildings were to combine residential function and security. Today, it remains one of the last vestiges of this fat period, before the decline of the port in the sixteenth century.

The inscription to the historical monuments in 1978 preserved the remarkable elements: facades, roofs, and the recently restored left side elevation window. The sources (Merimée, Monumentum) highlight its heritage interest as an example of late medieval civil architecture in Aquitaine, although its exact location (between Lartigau Street and the Priory) has been debated among local historians.

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