The town hall of Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze) bought the “suction cup house” adjoining the Saint-Martin collegiate church. Restoration work is planned to preserve this historical curiosity, the fruit of the French Revolution and the daily life of the city in the 19th century.
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“Suction cup.” This is a very ugly name for the 18th century houseattached to the Saint-Martin collegiate church, in Brive-la-Gaillarde. Once a wart, today heritage, the damaged building has just been bought by the city. Thanks to masonry and structural work, the municipality's ambition is to save it.
Between acquisition and construction, the operation costs the community three hundred thousand euros. “She is unusualsmiles the mayor (Les Républicains) Frédéric Soulier. Tourists often tell me that it is curious, it is the only house around the collegiate church. What is this ? How did this story come about? I believe it is important to preserve this history, the history of Brive.“
It all begins with the French Revolution. The commune then recovered the clergy's property and replenished its treasury by selling the plots surrounding the church. “The interest, for these people (the buyers, Editor’s note)is to settle in a particularly attractive location, right in the center of the city, in a market areasays Thierry Pradel, the director of municipal archives. So it will be traders, bazaars, jewelers, artisans of all kinds.”
-In the 19th century, the proliferation of suction houses around the Saint-Martin collegiate church in Brive-la-Gaillarde ended up endangering the church.
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© Pierre Gauthier / France Télévisions
These boutique houses surround the church and end up endangering the building. The danger turns out to be so strong that the head of the officeHistorical monuments, the great architect Viollet-le-Duc, expressed his dismay in a report in 1843.They dig to make space, to make cupboards, for their businessesexplains Thierry Pradel. They dig into the walls, into the buttresses that support the entire building. There, they put the ship at a very significant risk. The walls are moving apart. The church is in danger of collapsing.“
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The town hall of Brive-la-Gaillarde bought the “suction house” adjoining the Saint-Martin church. Restoration work is planned to preserve this historical curiosity, the fruit of the French Revolution and the daily life of the city in the 19th century.
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©Julie Radenac, Pierre Gauthier
To save the collegiate church, it was necessary to expropriate it. The undertaking will prove to be a long one. It will take more than a century to get rid of all these sucker houses. All… except one!
The building which remains today will have been dearly defended by Ferdinand Coq, its owner. His pugnacity paid off: in 1945, the Historical Monuments finally decided to preserve this house. A house which gives its scale to the church… and its face to today's Brive.
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