Besançon et ses demeures

2/4 rue des Granges

This home was built on a large corner lot in the Middle Ages, and it was the home of the chief, or personal, cup-bearer (or butler) to the archbishop: a very highly influential position. If you stand in the cul-de-sac at the rear of the building, you will see the remains of the medieval parts of the house, which consisted of a tower house, an enclosure wall, and a dovecot located at the corner of rue Luc Breton.

Another home, the Bouteiller mansion, was built in 1582 on the corner of rue Luc Breton and rue des Granges. The main facade decorated with pediments supported by masks carved from white limestone, was probably designed by the Dijon architect Hugues Sambin.

You can see some Latin maxims engraved over the first floor windows. On the ground floor, the inscription, with the date 1582 reads, “Only men of great and noble spirit can hear with equanimity bad things said of the good they did.” In 1741, the Montureux mansion (No. 4) was built onto the Bouteiller mansion. To maintain harmony between the two adjoining buildings, the architect Jean-Charles Colombot made ​​a pastiche of the 16th century facade.