The historical heart of Clamecy Preview

From the upper town to the lower town

Rue de la Monnaie has always been the link between the upper and lower town. It is still very much used and is one of the busiest shopping streets. It is also the only pedestrian one.

You are standing between two very typical medieval houses which are on the secondary list of the Monuments Histiriques, with half-timbering, corbels and so forth. The one on the left is dated 1540 and the one on the right, now a bookshop, was recently restored and is also 16th century.

The wood used came from the local forests and the stone of the ground floor from the many quarries in the region. The filling between the tmbers is a mixture of gravel and clay, but never any brick. The masonry work was given a coating on both sides, leaving the timbers bare.

XV century house

You are now in front of the restaurant. Its cellars used to be a workshop for minting the private money of the counts of Nevers, as is shown by the beam over the door. This workshop apparently carried on until the mid 16th century. Notice the two glowering wolves at each end of the beam. You can also pick out two medallions and the arms of the Count of Nevers. The house itself is 15th century.

Pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela could take shelter here; the sculpture of Saint Accroupi or Saint Eutrope under the corbel on the corner served as a signpost for pilgrims. At corner of Rue de la Monnaie and the Rue du Canal steps, you can see a turret with a spiral staircase inside. This is part of the Hotel de Marande, the property of a 16th century Clamecy family. Jasques de Marande, born around 1540, is the best known and was personnal secretary to the Archibishop of Reims and canon of the cathedral. He was an erudite theologian and wrote many religious works.

At the top of the steps behind you is another house, recently restored, which also has a turret enclosing a spiral staircase. Notice the inscription " Loye de Bèze 1595" above the door lintel of the house facing you. This is the earliest date marked on a Clamecy house. The Bèzes is a great Nivernais family.

One of the oldest pub in Clamecy

You are now in front of la Taverne. Notice its beam in the Flemish style. The 2nd and 3rd floors date from the second empire.

Mediaeval architecture

Opposite, on the corner of Rue Romain Rolland and Rue du Pont-Châtelain, is the house called the Tisserand's, probably the most picturesque in the town. It is 15th century and was listed by the Monuments Historiques in 1923. Its ground floor windows are typical of the workshops of the period. The semicircular arched cellar door sits under the bracket-corbel which supports the spiral staircase. The second floor with big corbels has direct acces to the stairs. ,Admire the diversity of the half-timbering.

A little way along, in Rue Romain Rolland, you can see the writer's birthplace which has a plaque on the wall. It was labelled " Maison des illustres" in 2011. Romain Rolland was a great humanist who works include Jean-Christophe and Colas Breugnon. In 1916 he was awarded the 1915 Nobel prize for literature. A room in the museum, aptly called the Romain Rolland Museum of Arts and History, is devoted to him.

Discover the Romain Rolland Museum of Art and History

Clamecy museum opened in 1876. At the time it was housed in two rooms of the town hall and later it moved to the Caisse d'épargne savings bank. At th end of the 1960's, the museum found its current home and opened its first room. Since then the collections have never stopped growing, with in particular series of Charles Loupot posters ( the largest of any public collection) as well as furniture and other items which had been the property of Romain Rolland and the François Mitterrand donation of several hundred paintings he had been given over his two presidential terms. To enable visitors to enjoy all the variety of this wealth , the museum has had to be extended and reorganised in three adjoining buildings: the house of Edme Courot , Romain Rolland's maternal grandfather, Romain rolland's own birthplace and the mansion of the duc de Bellegrade, who had been Master of the Wardrobe to Henri III and made governor of Burgundy by Hery IV. Accused of plotting against Richelieu, he was exiled to the Nivernais in 1635. Bellegarde did not stay very long in his Clamecy mansion and it remained empty for several decades. The Pantenor hospital was moved into it from the Bethléem district in the early 18th century.

The wall water in front of the museum is a reference to the town's fluvial history. In 1905, Avenue de la République was built across Clamecy in the place of the Canal du Nivernais. Avenue de la République also marks the boundary of the mediaeval town. Its 11th and 12th century fortifications pretty much followed the line of the buildings today. A turret guarded the postern which is still standing.

You are now at the Romain Rolland cultural center. this is the Hotel More de Tannerre built in 1601 and designed with the courtyard and garden typical of a private mansion. Yopu will notyice the main body is set back from the street and reached by a double flight of monumental stairs.

Enjoy the quiet of this street and its sunshine let in by the lowbuilt houses. You will notice its unusual style found nowhere else in Clamecy. It gets its name from one of the two chapels the were here before the Revolution. The chapel was reached by a little ramp preceded by a beautiful stone cross, called the Saint Antoine cross, which stills exists.

The garden of the Hotel More de Tannerre mentioned before can be seen trough the railings along with the bust of Romain Rolland sculpted by Maurice De Bus.

The old royal military school

Below on your right is a fine 18th century building, entered on the secondary list of the Monuments Historiques in 1895. It is the old royal military school, nox home to the François Mitterans media library and the Science Society.

Facing the Caisse d'épargne is the statue of Bat-le-Duc who was in charge of building the Saint-Martin collegiate tower. Local tradition has it that he was crushed by a rock when the tower was being built and his workmates carved his likeness into the rock that killed him.

The residence of the eight canons of the Saint Martin collegiate

At the end of this street you can see the Canons'house entered on the secondary list of the Monuments Historiques in 1925. This big 16th century building can be regognised by its canted tower like a pigeon loft, with a wooden staircase inside and surmounted by a four sided pyramidal roof. It was the residence of eight canons at the Saint Martin collegiate.

The Canon's private chapel inside still exists.

Built on the site of the 17th century storehouse

Work on the Caisse d'épargne was begun in 1907 to plans designed by the architect Wandelle. This building is very typical of bank architecture in the North style in the early 20th century. A symbol of power and wealth, its massive stonework and rich decoration gave customers a sens of security. It was built on the site of the 17th century salt storehouse, of which only an old gallery in the Renaissance style has been partially conserved and set in an inside courtyard of the new building.

To the right of the Bank, the house on the corner of Rue du Collège and Rue Bourgeoise is the family home of Amadée Jullien, founder of the Clamecy museum, engraver and historian.

Opposte, to the left on the statue of Bat-le-Duc, notice the mullioned windows of the house on the corner and the gallery on its first floor.

Where is the little sculpted head ?

You are now in Rue de la Tour. Notice the corbels on both sides, the door lintel carved into an ogee arch on the left and the door pediment on the right.

So now you have reached the Saint-Martin collegiate. Near you there is a little head sculpted into the front of one of the houses around you . See if you can find it!

The Flamboyant Gothic style

You are now in the very heart of the protected centre, the mediaeval city. This is the area which has probably undergone the most changes over the centuries. The esplanade is the latest of them.
Here religious Gothic architecture sits beside 19th century civil architecture.
In front of you rises the Saint-Martin collegiate, listed as Monument Historique in 1840. A word about its history.

In 1705, Viscount Guy founded a college of eight canons and decided to enlarge the church, by now a collegiate church, which was dedicated to Saint Martin in 1438.
It took from the late 12th to the 16th century to complete the work on this rectangular building. This great lenght of time was owing to the fact that the work was solely funded by the inhabitants.

The facade was built between 1515 and 1520. Notice:
- the gable with 12 crockets and pinnacle.
- the Flamboyant Gothic buttresses, a lacework in stone, abutted by two false turrets.
- the Neo-gothic rose window which replaced the ironed-barred window in the 19th century restoration.
-the Flamboyant Gothic gallery cutting across the front.

If you look a little closer, you can see how fine the decoration is:
- the leaved door with medallions of figures surrounded by the twelve sibyls and apostles finely carved into the stone.
- the four-arched doorway representing the life of Saint Martin in thirthy-two tableaux.
The tower measuring 55 meters was built between 1497 and 1515 by the Clamecy master stonemason Pierre Cuvé, known as Bat-Le-Duc, whose statue you could see opposite the Caisse d'épargne.
Notice the great flamboyant tracery windows with their arched framework, the canopied niches, the Flamboyant balustrade at the top and the gargoyles.

The town hall esplanade is on the site of the castle counts of Nevers which they built in the 9th or 10th century. Several times altered, in particular to house the law courts, it was destroyed in 1863.
The town hall-market hall, completed in 1859, was built in the castle gardens.

Clamecy by the waterside

From the top of the Vieille Rome steps you have a view over the Beuvron district. The restaurant on the corner to the right of the stairs is the birthplace of Gabriel Alapetite, an eminent civil servant. He was appointed sub-Prefect, Prefect, notabmy in Arras where he had to resolve a miner's dispute, French Ambassador to Spain in 1918 and Government High Commissioner in Alsace-Lorraine in 1920 when he succeeded Millerand; he was also French Resident-General in Tunis.

The old mills of Clamecy

This is rue des Moulins de la Ville which is where the old mills of Clamecy once backed onto the town walls with its postern that you can still see. On your right you can admire the overhanging hip windows where pulleys, which are still ther, were used to hoist sacks of grain.

Each saturday take place a market

Notice on your left the arcade of the old market hall which was in activity until 1862 before the market moved to the town hall.

The author of "Mon oncle benjamin"

Claude Tillier, a pamphleteer, novelist and journalist, was born in Clamecy in 1801. He was the author of " Mon oncle benjamin" which was made into a film starring Jacques Brel in 1969. The bust was unveiled in 1905 in the presence on Mr Bienvenu-Martin, then minister of Public Instruction, Fine Arts and Religions. The plinth was originally placed some meters higher but was moved and its fountains put back in operation when the street was restored in 2011-2012.

You can take a little break at the café called " Amon oncle benjamin" where you can see some murals illustrating this novel by Claude Tillier which were painted in the 20th century by Robert Puyard, a local artist.