Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The "Saint-Martin" house is an emblematic building of Vendôme, built between the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Located in Place Saint-Martin, it embodies late medieval civil architecture with its wood-paned facade spread over three floors and a gable. Each level is in corbellation, a technique typical of the era, while the voids between the beams are filled with exposed bricks. The projecting frame of the gable highlights structural elements such as the leggs and the wingers, worn by carved links.

The sculptures adorning the links on the ground floor represent four holy figures: Saint Martin, Saint James, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Louis (or Saint Nicholas according to the sources). These artistic details, combined with the ground profiles of the poles and sandstones, allow the precise date of construction. The house, although privately owned, saw its facade and roof classified as a historic monument by order of February 5, 1923, emphasizing its heritage importance.

Today, only the ground floor houses a trade, the rest of the building being not accessible to the public. The sources mention a precise location (24 place Saint-Martin) and belonging to the department of Loir-et-Cher, in the region Centre-Val de Loire. Its state of conservation and its location make it a remarkable witness to the town planning of Vendômois at the hinge of the 15th and 16th centuries.

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