Maison en terre cuite de Virebent

English translation

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History

At the beginning of the 19th century, Virebent, architect of the city, introduces to Toulouse a new style by breaking the neoclassical style with eclectic, fanciful formulas, borrowing their decorative vocabulary from the façades of the Renaissance or 17th century. His originality is to have returned to one of the oldest local traditions: terracotta. This type of décor and architecture knew a wide diffusion in the Toulouse region thanks to the quasi-industrial production for the time of decorative terracotta elements from a brickworks that the Virebent family owned at Launaguet. The façade of this house divides into three registers rhythmed by friezes and cornices supporting wrought-iron balconies, except at the level of the attic. The ground floor is pierced by three doors surmounted by round-arch arcading. The design of the bricks forms continuous bossages, enlivened by the alternation of two colour tones. The same theme is taken up on the upper registers. On the first, the windows are each flanked by two caryatids on cylindrical bases, while on the second fluted columns with Corinthian capitals replace the figures.