Le Mans Vanessa GB
Church Saint Pavin de la cité et cour d’Assé :
Here are narrow streets of cobbled stone, medieval neighborhood chosen to shot many movies. On this side of the rue de vaux, every house has been built against the city wall. The Churchsaint Pavin de la cité was destroyed during the revolution, now in its place a shared garden has been created and the plants recreate the different parts of the former church.
That “suspended” house was built in the 16th century above the street, today it looks suspended because the house against which it was built (in the corner) has been destroyed.
The Cour d’Assé is a small medieval square bordered with houses of very different styles. It is all that remains from the house of the lords of Assé le Riboul.
Grande rue:
During the middle ages it was the main road/axis of the city, with lots of little shops.
Key pillar house:
Half timbered house from the beginning of the 16th C. The pillar in the corner was used to find your way through the city when houses didn’t have numbers yet, and it was also used as a shop sign: here keys are sculpted so it indicates that the first owner was a locksmith. The owner was probably rather rich for the house has got 2 facades giving upon the street, this can also be shown through the use of the diamond pattern. There seems to be a wooden tower jutting out the main building, which mimics the staircases of stone architecture.
The house of Adam and Eve:
It was built in 1952. On the low relief above the entrance is a representation of Adam and Eve, Eve is offering Adam a huge and tempting apple. Some say these are actually Bacchus and Aristée showing the Earth. There are fruit garlands, vases…Renaissance decoration
The bas relief on top shows Nessos the centaur kidnapping Deianera (Heracles’ wife).
The house of the red pillar
The legend tells that this house was that of the executioner, and that the blood of his victims had impregnated the pillar. And on the capitol we can see a skull, a crucifix and ropes arounf the pillar. Actually he wasn’t allowed to live within the walls of the city. Another sculpture shows a set of canes of a game called “soule”, ancestor of golf.
The wooden pattern is rather plain. Stone wall between the houses to prevent the propagation of fires. In the MA, all of the half timbered houses were painted with light colors, as we can see today in le Mans.
The Tunnel:
There is a half timbered house inserted inside the arcades of the tunnel. Here a square or very small park has been created after the construction of the tunnel which destroyed an important part of that main street.
The house of the two friends:
On the pillar between the two houses there is a sculpture of 2 friends holding each other’s hand and looking towards their houses. Built by a rich merchant, between the 14th and 15th C. Gothic decoration with ogee arch above the door.
The museum of queen bérengère:
Body of three half timbered houses : house of Queen Bérengère, House of the Annunciation, House of the draper.
The house of Queen Berengère was built between 1492 and 1515, therefore the actual queen B, wife of Richard the Lionheart, never lived there because she lived in the 13th C. The decoration is very rich, and of gothic style.
The house of the Annunciation is called that way because of the Annunciation scene sculpted. The space between the posts is filled with bricks. The renaissance decoration mainly consists in the sculpted pilasters;
The house of the draper is characterized by its frieze showing cloth and people above and beneath, naked or dressed whether they are above or beneath.