Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house located at 21 rue Saint-Guenhaël in Vannes is a medieval construction made of wood, built on a stone base. Its massed plan, adjoining to the south and west, is organized around an elevated cellar, a square floor and a top illuminated by an axial skylight. Access was originally via an alley in the east, now covered, via a chamfered stone door leading to a wooden screw staircase. The structure preserves traces of small original windows, modified in the 19th century, as well as a 15th century stone fireplace, rebuilt in the 17th century.

Mentioned in an annuitant of 1455, this house illustrates the constructive techniques of the era, such as the aronde-tail assembly of the solitives or the corbellation on galandage. It belonged in 1677 to Jean Datille, deacon of the Cathedral of Vannes. The attic, raised later (probably in the 19th century), was arranged in a bedroom with the addition of a chimney on the west gable. The façade of the ground floor, once equipped with a stall, was transformed by the piercing of a window, partially erasing its medieval appearance.

The venal is now blocked, allowing independent access to the staircase, bypassing the shop on the ground floor. The latter, slightly raised, opened on the street by a few steps. Inside, the room on the first floor houses a right hooded fireplace and a wall cupboard with hand washes, testimonies of the period domestic amenities. The regular wooden poles still carry the remains of the horizontal pieces that once strengthened the frame and supported the old windows.

Classified as a Historic Monument in 1933 for its façade and roof, this house embodies the civil heritage of the 15th century in the city. Its successive modifications (17th and 19th centuries) reflect the evolution of urban uses, between habitat, trade and structural adaptations. The disappearance of the metal and the cover of the alley mark the modern transformations of the historical building.

External links