Timeline

Heritage classified

Origin and history

The house of Lauzerte is a historical monument whose wooden panels facade and double-deck staircase bear witness to a typical 16th and 17th century architecture. Partly rebuilt at that time, it retains notable decorative elements such as a light-wood turned baluster, a moulded handrail and a baldaquin ceiling decorated with pendants. These details reflect the refined craftsmanship of the period, as well as the importance attached to aesthetics in bourgeois or merchant homes of the period.

The structure also includes galleries on the floor, suggesting a spatial organization adapted to the domestic and perhaps commercial uses of the time. Its inscription under the title of Historical Monuments by decree of 7 September 1978 specifically protects the facade on the Market Square and the staircase with its baluster ramp. These protections highlight the heritage value of the building, which is representative of the medieval civil structure remodelled during the Renaissance and under the Old Regime.

Although the exact origins of the house may date back to the 13th or 14th century, the major transformations of the 16th and 17th centuries marked its present appearance. Its location on the Place du Marché (or Place des Cornières) in Lauzerte, Tarn-et-Garonne, makes it a central part of the local heritage. However, the accuracy of its location remains poor (note 5/10), reflecting the limitations of the available data.

The monument also illustrates the role of half-timbered houses in the South-West merchant towns, where they served as a place of life, storage and sometimes trade. Lauzerte, a medieval fortified town, was an economic hub where these buildings played a key role in everyday life. Their preservation makes it possible today to understand the urban and architectural evolution of the Occitanie region.

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