Secondly, half-timbered houses feature corbelling, with the higher floors being wider than the ground floor. Some of the houses boast three or four floors. Two main features separate half-timbering from timbering: firstly, the taller structure. But in Rennes, the correct term is indeed ‘half-timbered’. Half-timbered or timbered – is there any real difference? Both terms are often used to describe the same style of house, which you’ll find again and again in Alsace and Normandy. Guided tour © Destination Rennes / Julien Mignot Half-timbered or timbered – what’s the difference? Rather than use the chalky shale, earth was used for the foundations and the walls, and clay was mixed with straw to make cob, another key material used in these half-timbered houses. One other reason for the omnipresent half-timbered architecture here is that the subsurface was lacking in stone to build with. The local wood was hard, dry oak with almost infinite lasting power. “As a result, for centuries people built houses using the easiest material to source: the trees that stood in the vast Breton forests on the outskirts of the city”. It wasn’t until the canals and railways appeared on the scene that stone became easier to move around,” explains Gilles Brohan, the Rennes Tourism Office’s cultural director. “Up until the 19 th century, transporting materials was the most expensive part of the construction process. Wood was an abundant and cheap raw material, which is why this building technique was popular in the 14 th to 15 th centuries, and continued to be used up until the 18 th century. The many half-timbered houses in Brittany and Rennes are reflective of this movement, which arose especially in the aftermath of the Hundred Years’ War and the French War of Succession. Houses with wooden frameworks were built in response to this new phenomenon. Wood sourced from brittany’s forestsĪs early as the Middle Ages, northern Europe was rocked by a surge in urban living. But Rennes is where you’ll see them at their best: 370 houses of this type are still standing in the streets of Rennes, more than in Vannes (171 houses), Morlaix (127), Vitré (119) or Dinan (115) which are also known for their timber-framed houses. These houses are worth a visit in themselves, and you’ll see this style reiterated in many of the regions towns and cities. You can still catch glimpses of this architecture today on a stroll around the historic centre or by singing up for one of the guided tours on offer from the Tourism Office. Half-timbered houses are key to the architectural heritage you’ll find in Rennes and Brittany more generally. Hal-timbered houses in Rennes © Destination Rennes – Julien Mignot
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