Footstep at Aire-sur-la-Lys

Depart from the town of Aire-sur-la-Lys, latitude 50.6375400 (N 50° 38’ 15”), longitude 2.3947600 (E 2° 23’ 41”)

• Plate n ° 1

• At No. 2 rue d'Arras: house (ISMH: registered in the Supplementary Inventory of Historical Monuments) dated 1638, it served as residence for the Captain of the Militia, who was always the outgoing mayor (or mayor). The mortar and two pistols seen in the cartridges between the windows are the emblems of an armed militia. Note the framing of the bays in the shape of low arches, the richly decorated transoms and the denticulated drip. In this same street to see n ° 12-18-20 / 13-15: houses of the late seventeenth early eighteenth century classic French style. 1st on the right: Rue à la Chair - typical narrow street with a curved layout that owes its name to the stalls of the "chaircuitiers et butchers", which it sheltered in the Middle Ages. We find there a whole series of houses of the XVII^e century: n ° 9-5-1.

• Plate n ° 2

• At n ° 4 rue la Flesh: pretty façade with tympanums decorated with shells under a finely molded drip. No. 2 has retained part of its frames "in rolls". You turn left and go up part of the rue du Général Leclerc.

• Plate n ° 4

• Rue du Général Leclerc, at No. 22, mansion (ISMH 23.04.1947) built in 1635 by the Abbot Jacques Corbault, prior of the Abbey of Saint-Augustin-les-Thérouanne to serve as a refuge in time of war then rented in the eighteenth century to the Governor of the city hence his name "Governor's Hotel". After passing under the sandstone vault of the gateway, admire the noble facade with mullioned windows, Ionic and Corinthian pilasters as well as the beautiful crows supporting the roof. The magnificent gate, unfortunately separated from the rest by a fence wall, is reminiscent of the old Lille Stock Exchange: a semicircular arc, a broken archivolt framing the motto of the founder of the refuge, Father Corbault: "Expectatio Justorum Laetitia ". (The expectation of Eternal Life is the joy of the Righteous). Retrace your steps on rue du Général Leclerc and admire the entire square with the City Hall at its center, which set the tone for a series of houses with sequenced pilasters that were rebuilt from 1718 to 1850. ; totally transforming this medieval triangular place into a true deliberate "urban setting", like the great 18th century orders.

• Plate n ° 3

• At n ° 8 and 10: semi-detached houses 1717-1757 with a remarkable floor with pilasters, frieze in attic and masks.

• Plate n ° 6

• At n ° 16 Grand Place: house called "du Bailli", rebuilt on the site of the Bailliage small house. In the Middle Ages, the Bailli court was sitting in this place. Remarkable 18th century facade made of sandstone and cut stone. As on the other houses of the square, note the pilasters on two floors (colossal order), the composite capitals richly carved as well as the keys above the windows. As all the houses can not be of stone, it was obligatory, to preserve harmony, that they be coated. Town Hall (classified as a Historic Monument on 05.09.1947): building of a great architectural unit (1717-1721), beautifully porportionné, built under the direction of Heroguel, student of the famous Jules Hardouin-Mansart, architect of Louis XIV. You take the passage of the Hallettes which formerly housed stalls of hatters, cordeliers, draperies, corroyer then those of lardeurs and chaircuitiers. Its buttresses in white brick, red and black as well as the beams brought back to the day are impressive. Admire as you come out and turn back the Belfry, 45 meters high! The Belfry or "cloquier" because it contains the "bancloque" bumblebee ringing the banns. Another drone "Le Vigneron" announced the closing of cabarets and gates of the city. A chime of 14 bells continues to pace the air time every quarter of an hour. Contemporary of the Town Hall (restored in 1924) it is with the latter as the bancloque, the Bailliage bretèche, the arms of the City, among others "the symbol of communal franchises.

• Plate 8

Almost opposite, Our Lady of Deliverance always watches over the passers-by: the Airois were still at this beginning of the century to deposit in the empty niche a candle so that it gives the women in childbirth a good deliverance.

• Plate 9

• You arrive rue de Saint-Omer and notice almost opposite the passage, at No. 6, an eighteenth century building. This is an old inn that welcomed pilgrims as indicated by the signs: the traveler and the drone. Pilgrims were also accommodated free of charge at the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Hospital. Indeed, since the eleventh century, Aire was on the road taken by English pilgrims to go to Compostela. In n ° 9: building of the same inspiration which presents under the cornice a head that some take for the Holy Face. Cross the street and go back to see at n ° 11 an original house with front facade to oculi; of the pediment with arrageois accents that dominated it, only the consoles reversed.

• Plate n ° 11

• At n ° 10: a beautiful building dating from 1759, made of stone and brick, it is the mansion of the Dard barons: André-Camille Dard, scholar, and Henri Dard, both mayors of Aire-sur-la-Lys. André-Camille, collaborator of Prosper Mérimée is the author of historical works, Henri, his grandson, mayor of the city from 1904 to 1910, was an incisive polemicist, a political agitator.

• Plate n ° 12

• At No. 18 rue des Dévotaires, founded in 1622 by Canon Deschamps of Saint-Pierre Collegiate Church. He created 12 scholarships of "62 livres, 10 sols and 3 razières de blé" for 12 devout girls or widows who would devote themselves to educating young girls.

• Plate 13

• At No. 30 of the street: on the site of the refuge that the Abbey of Ruisseauville had built in 1638, stands this Directoire stone building of 6 spans. The first floor with balustrade railing offers a level with attic window on a spandrel decorated with a drapery. From here we entered the "cloister" of the Collegiate: it was the houses of the canons who surrounded him on all four sides. They were demolished during successive sieges. One can still get an idea with the series of small houses rebuilt in the eighteenth century, including the alignment of the facades on the Beguines Square is unique in the city of Aire-sur-la-Lys. Another vestige of this cloister: the Capitular house cellar and cellar in 20 place Saint-Pierre and the adjoining house. The Collegiate Church of Saint-Pierre: listed as a Historic Monument in 1862, a vast flamboyant Gothic building of brick and stone, was the church of the Chapter of Canons founded by Baudoin V the Pious Count of Flanders in 1059. Its dimensions attest the importance of the Chapter and the city throughout the history of Aire. It is worth a visit alone - beautiful organ cabinet (1633).

• Plate 14

• In front of the Collegiate Church: Collège Sainte-Marie; installed on the one hand in the old St Peter's barracks (eighteenth century) and on the other in the buildings of the Jesuit College (ISMH 23.11.1949), at the beginning of the seventeenth century, of an austere classicism but not devoid of charm. Georges Bernanos lived there two capital years of his adolescence (1st and final). Take the place of the Beguines to see the alignment of the eighteenth houses, cited above and at No. 26 a house dated 1703 with the Flemish pediment. Take a last look at the side of the Collegiate Church and notice the Gothic balustrades all different from each other and the richly carved frieze that highlights them.

• Plate n ° 15

• Rue des Clemenes (or Lady Clemence, Countess of Flanders) the convent of the "Gray Sisters" or Franciscan, still raises its chapel and a body of buildings with the beautiful gate dated 1719. Curved street with old charm, convex pavement allowing the flow of open water, wheel-carriages "It is at the place where the Lacquette flows into the Lys that was located the Château de la Salle, castle of Baudoin II, Count of Flanders, which raised to Aire a first castrum in the 9th century Go up rue de Saint-Omer towards rue du Bourg.

• Plate n ° 16

• The Hospice of Saint-Jean-Baptiste (ISMH 23.11.1946) existed already in the twelfth century, it was served by brothers and sisters wearing the religious habit but having pronounced only the wish to help the sick, the infirm and the needy. From the eighteenth century he was employed to receive wounded and sick soldiers. Notice especially the basket-handle door and the two rows of low-arched windows, separated by bas-reliefs of foliage. The facade of the building on court, includes a front-body detaching on a bottom of refends, adorned with a door with Corinthian pilasters.

• Plate n ° 17

• At n ° 50 rue de Saint-Omer: this private mansion or "House with columns" of Aire-sur-la-Lys, of a very pure classicism, offers a monumental facade raised under the Restoration between 1815 and 1825. On a basement in sandstone, the elevated ground floor, decorated with slotted joints is surmounted by a colossal order with six bays that mark 7 fluted Ionic columns. This ionic order includes the noble stage and an upper stage forming the attic. The colonnade is crowned by an entablature that emphasizes a strong cornice which completely hides the roof. The pedestals of the columns frame a balcony with balusters. The Chapel Saint-Jacques: classified Historical Monument (09.08.1942) built from 1682 to 1688 in Baroque style by the Jesuit Fathers for their college, is one of the most beautiful of the kind of the whole region. In addition, it shelters an excessive "Gloire", work of Magnard, architect and artist Air.

• Plate n ° 18

• At n ° 19: gracious mansion, the Hotel des Lencquesaing, Louis XV style quite rare in Aire. Note the skylights, beautifully molded spandrels and foliage carvings that frame the door and support a beautiful wrought iron balcony.

• Plate n ° 19

• At n ° 28: this small house (ISMH 25.02.1949) type of the mansions before the destruction of Aire by Marlborough (1710) is one of the few which remains in the city almost entirely rebuilt, after the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). It is the only one that has kept intact its lower wooden panel, its brick floor of Rosendael, which projects in corbelling, its storefront and its Flemish look. You go up the whole street of Saint-Omer and turn right in the street of the Bourg.

• Plate n ° 10

• At n ° 7: house (ISMH 25.02.1948) typical of those rebuilt in Aire after the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) with a screened front with salient support. This house of 1716 served as a "prototype" to Héroguel, the architect of the town hall. Under each lighter on the second floor the signs are decorated with the attributes of the cabinetmaker and the faïence. In 1713, the house was held by a widow, to whom the aldermen paid the boarding of two workers from the Aire factory located on the Tripiers quay. The street of Saint-Omer abuts on the street of the Bourg with the place said "Ad Crucem Arie" (the cross of Aire) then "Cross with the breads" at the origin of the legend of Notre-Dame Panetière, the saint patron saint of Aire. Before going along this street towards the Collegiate Church, admire, in front of the n ° 32, the unusual facade of the house known as "the house of the heads". In 1865, its owner, a clockmaker and former companion of the Tour de France, sculpted, drawing freely on Roman, Gothic, Neo-Gothic and Moorish styles, the front door, the shutters and the ornamental motifs of the facade. Grotesque, small columns, headband of figured modillions, foliated lintels framed by festooned friezes animate an exuberant, pseudo-medieval decor that unfolds on a checkerboard of red and black bricks. Take the rue du Bourg, head towards the Collegiate Church, on the Place du Castel, take a look at the Lacquette which flows into the Lys a little further and the mill wheel of the Invalides. The name "Castel" comes from the deformation of the name Châtelet or Castelet. This square marks the location of the fortified gate, entrance of the old feudal castrum at the origin of the foundation of the city of Aire. Aire, Villa Aria, this name appears in 857. In the rue Saint-Pierre beautifully arched, dominate the current houses of the eighteenth century: there are some mansions at No. 14-16.

• Plate 7

• Hunnebelle passageway: charming little house with a screened front with projecting support. On the sign: a square, a compass and a plane seem to indicate that a master builder lived there in 1704.

• Plate n ° 20

• At n ° 13: building dated 1705, whose beautiful sign "A la Libra" is carved under the cornice "You are back to the Bailliage

• Plate n ° 5

• At No. 6 and 8 rue du Bourg, houses that complete the harmony of the place.