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Article Dans Une Revue Ædificare, Revue internationale d’histoire de la construction Année : 2022

Building stone in Orléans architecture between the XIIth and XVIth century (France).

Usages de la pierre à bâtir dans les constructions d’Orléans aux XIIe-XVIe siècles

Résumé

Orléans has numerous natural ressources that can have been used for the construction of structural works in the Middle Ages : hard limestone from neighbouring towns or from the centre of the city itself, thanks to underground quarries whose locations testify to periods of urban expansion ; wood from a large forest adjoining the north of the city ; and clay from the Sologne and the Orléanais, which has been exploited since Antiquity for the production of bricks and tiles. Its status of warehouse-town and commercial port located on the northern loop of the Loire river is also a major asset for the supply of stone coming from quarries located upstream or downstream up to a distance of a hundred kilometres. Observations resulting mainly from building archaelogical studies crosschecked with archives (notarized deeds, building contracts, accounts) provide a better understanding of the reasoned choices made by builders and project managers of various buildings of the town between the 12th and the 16th centuries, whether they were houses, churches or public and military buildings. They underline the frequent reuse of materials and masonries, together with the implementation of construction techniques combining stone and wood. Thus, after the Hundred Years War, lake limestone rubble and timber-framed architecture were used for the reconstruction of houses and the creation of housing estates located respectively in the previously occupied districts and those resulting from the expansion of the town (new urban enclosures dating from the 15th and 16th centuries). From the 12th century, the use of ashlar has been centred on some specific architectural elements, but also on the façades of wealthy residences or huge private mansions, in competition with the use of bricks from the 1500s. The analysis of the accounts of Saint-Aignan in the 1468-1469 and 1471-1472 years, regarding the reconstruction of the collegiate church and the creation of a new urban enclosure, gives explanations on the terms of supply of some types of stones whose use significantly increased from the 15th century onwards. Moreover some hierarchy is to be noticed in the use of several types of lithic materials within one and the same elevation or between the different walls of one and the same building (hard lacustrine limestone from the Orléanais, Jurassic Era limestone from the Nivernais, tuffeau stone from the Cher valley), resulting from both technical and aesthetic choices and revealing the development of economic networks.
Disposant de ressources naturelles multiples pour la construction (calcaire dur, bois et argile), la ville d’Orléans était, grâce à son port, également approvisionnée en matériaux lithiques venant de régions plus éloignées (Nivernais, Blésois). Les observations issues d’études d’archéologie du bâti croisées avec des archives permettent d’appréhender les choix économiques, techniques et esthétiques effectués par les maîtres d’ouvrage et constructeurs des bâtiments urbains.
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Dates et versions

hal-04126011 , version 1 (12-06-2023)

Identifiants

Citer

Clément Alix, Daniel Morleghem. Usages de la pierre à bâtir dans les constructions d’Orléans aux XIIe-XVIe siècles. Ædificare, Revue internationale d’histoire de la construction, 2022, n° 9, 2021 – 1, Pierre et dynamiques urbaines, pp.199-264. ⟨10.48611/isbn.978-2-406-12945-5.p.0199⟩. ⟨hal-04126011⟩
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