Hotel de Gargan

Hotel de Gargan

The Hôtel de Gargan is a historic building complex in Metz . It was built in the 15th century, at the transition from the late Gothic to the Renaissance .

use

The ensemble was built as a 15th century town house for wealthy members of the nobility and clergy . It had to fulfill two basic functions: the representation within the public life of the society and the withdrawal of the members of the family of the house. The Gargan family originally came from Thionville .

The buildings house a 17th century ballroom , in which the jeu de paume , a forerunner of tennis, was played, as well as a theater that celebrated the opening of the “Hôtel des Spectacles” on “Place de la Comédie” in 1752 was further used as the theater of the city of Metz. Game operations continued in all genres until 1799. During the French Revolution, the theater was closed by the municipality and the buildings were sold.

architecture

window

One can see a clear influence of the Italian Gothic, which goes back to the influence of Italian bankers in Metz in the 13th century. The low roof and the crenellated wall that hides the roof are typical of this. The parapets of the windows come from the so-called "late Gothic Baroque", the period from 1500, in which the first elements of the (Italian) Renaissance can be found across Europe and replace the tighter, almost schematic forms of representation and stricter gestures of the Gothic. Some changes were made later, on the left, a date is inscribed above a window: 1578.

location

The Hôtel de Gargan is located in Nexirue . Nexirue comes from Latin and means "to kill". This indicates that there was a public place of execution on this street in the Middle Ages .

The ensemble has been protected as a Monument historique since October 3, 1929 .

Web links

Commons : Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance houses in Metz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sign for a historical city tour of Metz
2. ↑ on the term “Gothic Baroque” cf. z. B. Georg Lill: German sculpture . People's Association of Book Friends, Berlin 1925
3. ↑ cf. in addition the (controversial) term in French " gothique flamboyante " for the late Gothic
4. ↑ En Nexirue - Hôtel de Gargan ( Memento des Originals of November 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Pages of the city of Metz 

Coordinates: 49 ° 7 '4 "  N , 6 ° 10' 23"  E