Ancienne maison canoniale

English translation

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History

This former canonical house of the cloister of Sainte-Croix in Orléans today consists of two dwelling blocks: one on the street, the other between courtyard and garden. The latter was built in the years 1525-1530, as evidenced by the decoration of the openings' frames (pilasters with composite capitals of floral inspiration) as well as the ornamental motifs sculpted on the ceilings which reveal the progress and assimilation of Italianism in the Orléanais. This house of the early Renaissance, occupied by canons until its sale by auction in 1791, is poorly documented before that date. Transformed from the 17th to the 19th century (refection of the roof structure and modification of the roof pitch, refection of the openings and new perforations), deprived of its original staircase which was to be detached, this house is one of the rare claustral houses preserved in the Sainte-Croix quarter. Its principal interest lies in the ceilings of its two levels which have preserved practically intact their old joist work where there is found a series of motifs borrowed from the Italian decorative vocabulary which appeared in Touraine in the years 1505-1510: friezes of shells, of ovolo, of ribbons, pearl necklaces, cordons, Italian shield... At the end of the 19th century, this house belonged to the historian Louis-Modeste Jarry.