Date

Circa 1910

To the side of the entry portal, carved figures of a man and a woman, leaning out of false windows observe the street from the first floor of the pavilion. The 'grand maison' built in his native city from 1443 to 1451 by the banker Jacques Coeur is a rare example of a late medieval urban residence. It is well preserved, its size and the richness of its decoration are exceptional, and it is a closely dated building, erected in a single campaign. The house was only just finished at the time of Jacques Coeur's arrest in 1451; it was mutilated and altered when it was used as the city hall (1682-1858) and later as the court-house (1858-1920). Major restorations were executed in 1858-1870 and 1927-1938; the last returned the building to its original state. It lies between the Gallo-Roman city wall to the west and a street to the east and is an irregular quadrangle in plan (60 x 40 m) with a courtyard.