Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house of 14 rue de la Chalotais in Tréguier is an emblematic building of the late 15th century, built around 1490 by a toile merchant. It illustrates the architectural type of pondalez, designed for the nobility of the port cities of northern Brittany. Its irregular plan, stretched in depth, combines a commercial ground floor open on the street and a central hall 13 meters high, intended to accommodate foreign buyers. The carved screw staircase, adorned with a religious iconographic program (saint Martin, St George, St Peter), serves the floors where the rooms, isolated by wooden panel partitions, once communicated via wooden galleries (pondalez) overlooking the hall.

The façade on the street, made of corbelled wood, has poles, sandstones and cross-tangles of Saint-André, while the bays on the floors form a continuous horizontal band, characteristic of the Guingamp workshop. At the back, the stone façade reuses the chains of the original bays. The ground floor, fully connected, housed a "large shop" heated by a monumental fireplace (today reduced), as well as a small kitchen equipped with a sink and a stone bowl, separated from the hall by a missing claustra. The latrines, backed by the stair tower, and a secondary staircase added to the modern era testify to the successive adaptations of the building.

In the 17th century, the galleries (pondalez) linking the rooms on street and on courtyard were abolished, replaced by a staircase in rear view for a more convenient access. The 19th century saw major changes: modification of the roof (disappearance of the right gable), coating on the wooden panel facade, drilling of large bays, and division of the interior space. Partially classified in 1964, the house benefited in 2007 from an extension of protection to its interiors after the rediscovery of its membership in the pondalez. Recent restorations (from 2007) have restored the central space, stairway, and wood-paned partitions, while a dendrochronological study (2023) has specified the dates for wood felling: autumn-winter 1551-1552 for the first floor beam, and spring 1649 for second floor and attic covers.

This house, one of the first of the pondalez type, reveals "bad addresses" of execution revealing its early character: misalignment of the levels between rooms on street and on courtyard, vasselier partially masked by stairs. Its spatial organisation reflects the needs of a prosperous business, combining sales space, customer reception, and private accommodation. The complete protection of the house (decree of 6 April 2007) underlines its heritage importance, both for its architecture and for its testimony on the life of Breton toile merchants at the hinge of the Middle Ages and the modern era.

External links