Maison de Jeanne () is a late

15th century The 15th century was the century which spans the Julian dates from 1 January 1401 ( MCDI) to 31 December 1500 ( MD). In Europe, the 15th century includes parts of the Late Middle Ages, the Early Renaissance, and the early modern period. ...

house in

Sévérac-le-Château Sévérac-le-Château (; oc, label=Languedocien, Severac del Castèl) is a former commune in the Aveyron department in southern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Sévérac-d'Aveyron. The Château de Sévérac ...

Aveyron Aveyron (; oc, Avairon; ) is a department in the region of Occitania, Southern France. It was named after the river Aveyron. Its inhabitants are known as ''Aveyronnais'' (masculine) or ''Aveyronnaises'' (feminine) in French. The inhabitants ...

, France. It was named for the last known owner of the building and is thought to be the oldest house in Aveyron. The unique appearance of the structure is due to the larger dimensions of the upper floors, which look large compared to the smaller footprint of the first floor.

History

The building was dated after 1478 and is presumed to be the oldest

half-timbered house Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

in the department of Aveyron.''Cette maison, star d’Internet, est âgée de plus de 500 ans''
/ref> The name of the home comes from the last occupant of the home: an artist named Jeanne. The reason for the unusual design of the building has been attributed to the local tax laws at the time of construction. In Aveyron the taxes of a home were calculated by the amount of land that the ground-level floor occupied. It is thought that the original owner wanted to pay less tax, and built the upper floors wider and larger than the ground floor. The house was purchased by the municipality of Sévérac in 1995 and restoration and repair work was planned. In 2017, someone shared a photo of the medieval home on the image-sharing site

Imgur Imgur ( , stylized as imgur) is an American online image sharing and image hosting service with a focus on social gossip that was founded by Alan Schaaf in 2009. The service has hosted viral images and meme, particularly those posted on Reddit ...

and it attracted the attention of more than 1.5 million people in two days.

Design

The home was constructed with a

timber frame Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

and from walls made of cob. The home was designed with larger upper floors overhanging a smaller footprint. The building has two storeys and a vaulted cellar containing feed troughs, which indicate that the original owners lived with their animals on the lower floor. Originally the exterior of the home was clad in stone. In 2019, repairs and renovations on the building began. The renovations were supervised by architect Philippe Blondin. The roof was originally slate tiles, and each roof tile was removed and measured by Serge Causse, with replacements being cut and sized. The exterior masonry work was completed by the Muzzarelli company. The Drulhet company handled the carpentry, and the electricity and plumbing work was completed by the Molinié company. Authentic

lime plaster Lime plaster is a type of plaster composed of sand, water, and lime, usually non-hydraulic hydrated lime (also known as slaked lime, high calcium lime or air lime). Ancient lime plaster often contained horse hair for reinforcement and pozzolan ...

was used in the interior of the house.

References

External links

Tour of the building
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hare Memorial Library Medieval French architecture Monuments historiques of Aveyron 14th-century architecture Houses in France