Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The houses of the Place du Marché in Richelieu are part of an architectural ensemble designed by architect Jacques Lemercier during the creation of the town fortified by Cardinal Richelieu in the 17th century. Their rectangular plan breaks with the traditional orthogonal planes centered, organizing the spaces around two places and a Grande Rue. These buildings, although according to a common distribution, show variations according to the importance of the streets, reflecting a thought urban hierarchy.

The construction of these houses took place between the first half of the seventeenth century and the eighteenth century. Their heritage value is recognized by several protections under the Historic Monuments: the facades and roofs on the Grande-Rue were registered in 1932, while other elements (inner courtyard, porch, staircase, attic) were registered in 2002. These protections underline the importance of their conservation for the history of French urban planning.

The architect Jacques Lemercier, the central figure of this project, conceived these houses as representative models of a new urban vision. The town of Richelieu, with its rectangular plan and its structured public spaces, embodies a major innovation in town planning under the Ancien Régime. The houses in the Place du Marché are an architectural testimony, mixing uniformity and diversity in their declination.

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