Maison carrée d’Arlac: A Neoclassical Folly in Mérignac, France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page11 sections
History
Maison carrée d’Arlac, also known as Château Peychotte, is a neoclassical folly in Mérignac, France, built between 1785 and 1789 for the wealthy bourgeoisie. A folly was a country or suburban residence designed mainly for leisure and display rather than defense or practical use. Its Palladian design, based on the principles of the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, emphasizes symmetry, classical proportions, and monumental columns.
From the Arlac estate to Château Peychotte
François Mendès bought the Arlac estate from the Pinel family in 1720. In 1768, his son Joseph Mendès sold it to his nephew Samuel Charles Peixotto, a Jewish banker of Portuguese origin. His name later appeared in the French forms Peixotte and Peychotte.
Peixotto commissioned the château between 1785 and 1789. Jean-Baptiste Dufart prepared its plans as a large suburban residence in the Neoclassical and neo-Palladian tradition. The project belonged to a period when prosperous members of the bourgeoisie built classically inspired houses on the outskirts of towns.
Changing ownership and uses
Unsuccessful property speculation brought Peixotto close to ruin, and he died in 1805. In 1810, relatives from the Rodrigues-Henriquez family bought the estate at auction. The professor of medicine Élie Gintrac acquired it in 1827. He used the property for work on raising silkworms and established a vivarium, an enclosed place for keeping and observing living animals, to collect snake venom.
The estate changed owners twice between 1891 and 1941. During the First World War, Madame Goudal installed a military hospital in the château. German forces occupied the building from 1940 to 1944.
Neglect, municipal ownership, and restoration
A property developer acquired the estate in 1962, after which the house was left abandoned and unsupervised. Years of neglect and repeated proposals for developing the extensive park placed the property at risk. In 1990, the municipality of Mérignac bought the estate from S.C.I. Peychotte–Les Jardins de Saint-Augustin for one symbolic franc.
Major restoration work followed, financed by the municipality, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, the General Council, and the Aquitaine region. The building has been classified as a historic monument since 21 March 1983, and the municipality of Mérignac is its current owner. Maison carrée d’Arlac may have inspired Château de Rastignac at La Bachellerie in Dordogne and the White House in Washington, although this proposed relationship remains unestablished.
Remains
Maison carrée d’Arlac has a compact plan and stands on a hill. Its Palladian arrangement combines a rectangular vestibule with a circular central salon, while the exterior presents sharply contrasting north and south elevations. The château originally dominated a landscaped park, which was almost intact at the beginning of the 1980s but was later greatly reduced and altered by property development.
Exterior and grounds
North façade
The north façade has an austere appearance, providing a restrained counterpart to the more formal southern elevation. Its treatment forms part of the building’s compact classical composition.
South façade and staircase
The monumental south façade is organized around a semicircular Corinthian colonnade. A Corinthian colonnade is a row of columns whose capitals are decorated with elaborate leafy forms. The colonnade rises above a monumental staircase with convex steps, giving the principal elevation its distinctive ceremonial character.
Interior arrangement
Central rotunda
The central salon is a two-storey rotunda covered by a shallow dome with painted decoration. Its circular form provides the organizing feature of the interior and rises through both main levels of the house.
Staircase and musicians’ gallery
A concealed staircase is skillfully placed within the junction between the circular salon and the rectangular vestibule. It leads to the upper rooms, including the bedrooms and a circular gallery overlooking the rotunda. The gallery was intended for musicians.
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