HOTEL DES MONNAIES

The "Hôtel des Monnaies" is a civil building from the 13th century. Its nickname perpetuates the memory of a hypothetical mint that would have earned Villemagne its nickname of "l'Argentière". Silver coins were perhaps minted in Villemagne, thanks to the presence of silver lead deposits. This workshop, if it existed, was probably located outside the village, as the so-called "Hôtel des Monnaies" was in fact a building that housed shops, warehouses and dwellings upstairs.
The plan of the building is rectangular with an inner courtyard. It consists of a ground floor, now half buried by the successive floods of the Mare. On the main façade, arches flanked by doors follow one another, while on the side a door is surmounted by a lintel decorated with medallions. The first floor is composed of a series of twin bay windows. A frieze of pointed flowers runs along the extrados of the arches.

Show less