Saved in its near total by the bombardments of 1944, the place Saint-Saver is one of oldest the public spaces of the town of Caen. Although it is unfortunately made ugly by its use as carpark with open sky, it offers today a splendid example of town planning and elegance of the traditional time.

Localization on wikimapia

Origins

Since the the Middle Ages, the place Saint-Saver is one of principal the public spaces of Caen. The only access to the old city for the population of Borough-L' Abbot, enclosed in his own walls, or for the people coming from the west (Bessin, Cotentin, Avranchin or Brittany) was done by narrow the Pont-levis of the Porte Saint Martin's day connected to the place Saint-Saver by the street Pémagnie, not very broad and tortuous; the place was finished indeed in the west on a cul-de-sac called Coignet with the Ewes , sector isolated with the foot from the ramparts and not very advisable which was used in particular as cemetery for the Huguenot S which were to be buried nuitamment in secret places following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The place, then named place of the Pilori or the Old Market until in 1776, were bordered of houses out of forming wooden built on porches of the roofed passageways.

As the various denominations of the place show it, this Public space fulfilled several functions, in addition to that of transit. One was held to with it of oldest the Marché S of the city. The proximity of the university between the street of the Chain (street Pasteur) and the street Saint-Saver made of it the place of predilection for the students who placed there and who came to slacken there after the courses. It was also used for missions definitely less happy: one indeed installed there the scaffold and the Pilori. The prisoners had left the Prison of the street of Jail, traversed the street Saint-Pierre, collected place Beautiful-Cross (current Malherbe place), then went up the street with Cheeses, called street Assemble-with-Regret, to finish their days places Pilori. In a way perhaps more lugubrious still, one exposed to it the corpses of committed suicide, hung with the gibet by the feet.

The great operation of town planning of the traditional time

From the end of 18th and beginning of 18th, the fair of Caen experienced a rather significant development and the population passed from 25.000 to 32.000 inhabitants; the hurdy-gurdy city densifia still a little more, one added a stage, generally the fourth, at the existing houses. The problems of circulation were done increasingly difficult to manage. With 18th, Caen was still a city with the aspect inherited the Moyen-Âge. Except the district of the Royal Place (currently place of the Republic) arranged with 18th on an old meadow between Noë and Large Odon, the Small Meadows , the remainder of the city was composed of narrow streets and sinuous lanes, divided by many rivers (Noë, Petit and Large Odon). The parish Saint-Saver did not make exception in this table. In 1688, the street Pémagnie was partly rectified and widened. Ten years later, one moved small the Cimetière which was located in front of and around the church, but of the houses quickly invaded space left free street of the chain and street Saint-Saver.

But with 18th, the town of Caen fell under the great movement of urban revival to work in France. In 1735, an ordinance of the aldermen of Caen ordered the refitting of the place Saint-Saver; one thus made destroy the old medieval masonries to allow most fortunate to build beautiful private mansions on new a Alignement. One of these first was the Hotel of Whip (n°20 current), built towards 1740. Behind an identical appearance, one can distinguish from the differences: the keys of bays are sometimes simply épannelées or on the contrary decorated of staples rubble and all the buildings are not equipped with door-carriage. In order to respect alignment, one did not hesitate to raise a traditional frontage over the church Saint-Saver in front of the old gate of 15th. This beautiful unit, caractérisitque of the town planning of the traditional time, was raised by the installation in the Années 1960 of a statue of Louis XIV coming from the Royal Place.

Between 1752 and 1775, the baron de Fontette, Intendant of the General information of Caen, came to supplement this refitting. It made shave part of the ramparts towards Coignet with the Ewes , fill the ditches and bored a rectilinear street since the place of Small Butcheries through the gardens of the Abbaye to the Men (whose conventual buildings were besides in the course of rebuilding since 1704); at the end of this new way, the street Saint-Beno4it cheese (current street Guillaume-the-Conquering), one arranged an octagonal place, named place Fontette starting from 1763. The streets Saint-Pierre and Écuyère were also aligned and widened in order to allow an direct access and rapid with the center of the city. A new Law courts, with a frontage gréco-Roman, was high starting from 1781; the work, stopped by the Revolution, took again in 1809 and one then completed the wing on the place Saint-Saver. Being next to the old place of the Pilori, the creation of the device places Saint-Benoît Fontette-street made it possible to lighten the old place of most of the traffic which encumbered it and to thus appreciably improve circulation with Caen.

Historic buildings

See the site of the SDAP of the Apple-brandy

• Church of the Old man-Saint-Saver Left protected Totality from the building Protection CLMH, Localization 6/29/1951 Places Saint-Saver, street Saint-Saver Owner Town hall of Caen

• Hôtel of the Hart Parties protected Façade on court and attic windows on the street Protection ISMH, 4/13/1928 Localization 10, rue Pémagnie Propriétaire Mairie de Caen
• Hôtel of Whip protected Parties Façade Protection ISMH, 6/21/1927 Localization 20 place Saint-Sauveur Propriétaire Privé
• Hôtel Marescot de Prémare protected Parties (A) Façade; (B) Dining room with its decoration of woodworks, at the ground floor Protection (A) ISMH, 6/25/1929; (B) ISMH, 4/7/1975 Localization 10, place Saint-Sauveur Propriétaire Privé
• Hotel Canteil de Condé Left protected Frontage on street, leaves of the gate included/understood Protection ISMH, 1/23/1928 Localization 19, place Saint-Sauveur Propriétaire Privé
• Statue of Louis XIV Left protected Statue with its base Protection ISMH, Localization 8/18/2006 Places Saint-Saver Common Owner

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