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Origin and history

The house of Fargeas, located in Vicq-sur-Breuilh in Haute-Vienne, is a house dating from the first half of the seventeenth century. Locally referred to as "Mirabeau's house", however, this name is not attested by any historical document. Its architecture, marked by a door in the middle of the hanger flanked by pilasters and an open pediment, reflects the aesthetic codes of the time. Inside, the monumental granite chimneys, decorated with ground pilasters, highlight the noble character of the building, while the outbuildings (granges, stables) testify to its mixed use, both residential and agricultural.

According to oral tradition, this house belonged to the Marquis Victor Honoré de Mirabeau, whose wife, Geneviève de Vasson, he would have received in dowry during their marriage in 1743. Vasson's family, involved in the mining of the silver lead mines in Glanges (a well of which was near Fargeas), reportedly used the house to house the mine managers between 1750 and 1778. Architectural elements, such as the semi-circular curved furnace or the covered well, suggest developments related to mining and agricultural activities in the region. Listed at the Historical Monuments in 1992, the house thus illustrates the economic and social history of the Limousin in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The outbuildings, forming a long building connecting the house to the farmhouse, include structures dated for some before 1830. Their layout and function (stables, barns) reveal a typical organisation of the rural estates of the time, where the seigneurial habitat and farms coexisted. The absence of a well margin and the roof-to-wall coverage reflect local constructive techniques adapted to the available resources. Although the award to Mirabeau remains uncertain, Fargeas's home remains a major architectural and historical testimony of the Haute-Vienne.

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