Maison Pierre Delfau, A private mansion in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne).

Maison Pierre Delfau is a Gothic private mansion in Toulouse built between 1493 and 1497. The three-story stone building with an attic features a decorative entrance door with a pointed arch, Gothic windows with crossing patterns, and a seven-sided tower in the courtyard that contains a spiral staircase.

The building arose after a major fire in 1463 that had destroyed the neighborhood. Pierre Delfau, a wealthy merchant, purchased the land and built his house with a shop on the street, which still preserves its medieval structure today.

The house is named after Pierre Delfau, a pastel merchant who built it between 1493 and 1497 and kept his shop there. Above the tower door, the empty niche and the small shield held by two angels recall the coat of arms he hoped to receive as a capitoul, an honour he never obtained before his death in 1507.

The mansion is private and not open to visitors, but it can be admired from the street outside. You will find the building on rue de la Bourse in the center of Toulouse, in an area with many other medieval buildings.

The courtyard tower is 22 metres high, 24 with its turret, and its stone spiral stair has 84 steps. Above the sixth step a small lamp niche is cut into the wall, and resting seats are set in the window angles on each floor. The stair's axis ends in a pillar from which seven ribs rise to support the vault.