Bourges-Palais Jacques Coeur-112-2008-gje

The Palais Jacques Cœur is a large ''

hôtel particulier () is the French term for a grand urban mansion, comparable to a Townhouse (Great Britain), British townhouse. Whereas an ordinary (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a ...

'' built by

Jacques Cœur Jacques Cœur (, ; in Bourges – 25 November 1456 in Chios) was a French government official and state-sponsored merchant whose personal fortune became legendary and led to his eventual disgrace. He initiated regular trade routes between Fran ...

for himself and his family in

Bourges Bourges ( ; ; ''Borges'' in Berrichon) is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre (Cher), Yèvre. It is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Cher (department), Cher, and also was the capital city of the former provin ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Built and decorated in the

flamboyant Flamboyant () is a lavishly-decorated style of Gothic architecture that appeared in France and Spain in the 15th century, and lasted until the mid-sixteenth century and the beginning of the Renaissance.Encyclopedia Britannica, "Flamboyant style ...

style, it is widely viewed as one of the most prominent examples of French civilian architecture in the 15th century.

History

, who was born in Bourges and started his career there, bought the land in 1443 from Jean Belin, a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

of the . Coeur did not have time to enjoy it, however, as he was arrested in 1451, tried and subsequently exiled. Construction works were completed in 1453, at a time he was imprisoned. King Charles VII seized the property as Cœur was sentenced, but restored it to Cœur's children in 1457, after Cœur himself had died in exile the year before. In 1501, one of Jacques Cœur's grandsons sold it to Antoine Turpin, a local notable, who in turn sold it in 1552 to diplomat

Claude de l'Aubespine, baron de Châteauneuf Claude II de l’Aubespine, seigneur de Hauterive et de la Forêt-Thaumieres, baron of Châteauneuf-sur-Loire. (1510 – 11 November 1567) was a French diplomat, and Secretary of State. Life From 1537 until 1567 he was one of the four Secreta ...

. In May 1679, it was attributed to

Jean-Baptiste Colbert Jean-Baptiste Colbert (; 29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683) was a French statesman who served as First Minister of State from 1661 until his death in 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His lasting impact on the organization of the countr ...

, who in January 1682 returned it to the City of Bourges. After that, it hosted various municipal services. The palace suffered some damage during the French Revolution, when the large

equestrian statue An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a ...

of Charles VII above the main entrance was destroyed. In 1820, it became a

court house A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

, hosting the ''

tribunal d'instance In France prior to 2020, the ''Tribunal d'instance'' (literally "Court of First Instance") was a judicial lower court of record of first instance for general civil suits and included a criminal division, the Police Court (''tribunal de police''), ...

'' and the ''

cour d'appel An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appellate ...

'' of the Cher department.

Prosper Mérimée Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, an import ...

identified it in 1837 as a major cultural property, and it was subsequently listed on France's first

list of historic monuments of 1840 The List of historic monuments protected in 1840 is a list of the historic monuments of France created in 1840 by the French Commission for Historical Monuments (''Commission des monuments historiques''). It was the first protection of this type i ...

. The Bourges municipality sold it to the ''département'' and the state in 1858, after which a first restoration campaign lasted until 1885. In the 1920s, the Cher ''département'' sold its share to the French state and the court activities were discontinued. A second, much more careful restoration campaign was led by architects Henri Huignard and Robert Gauchery from 1927 to 1937. The stonework was again cleaned up in the early 2000s. The Palais Jacques Cœur is now managed by the ''

Centre des monuments nationaux Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

'' and open to the public as a major local tourism attraction.

Notes

Official website of Palais Jacques Cœur
{{Coord, 47.0843, 2.3935, type:landmark_region:FR, display=title Buildings and structures in Cher (department)

History

See also

Notes