Tour des Échevins, classified historical monument house in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France
Maison dite Tour des Échevins is a stone house in Brive-la-Gaillarde built in the French Renaissance style. Its façade includes a small carved turret, large windows, and a round staircase door, with warm sandstone walls under a red tile roof.
The house was built in the early 1500s from local Grammont sandstone, and was home to Antoine Delbos, a lawyer who became a local judge in 1787. It was listed as a protected monument in 1889, with later repairs to the staircase tower and window frames keeping the Renaissance character intact.
The name recalls the échevins, medieval town magistrates, and locals still use the building as a landmark when pointing out the old center. Its carved turret and stone details are the kind of work people slow down to look at when walking from the market square toward the church.
You can see the building from the street near Saint-Martin church, and a small plaque gives basic facts about its past. Walking the old town on foot is the best way to notice the stone carvings and quiet side lanes around it.
Two small towers rise from the house, one on each side, and their carvings are usually missed by people hurrying to the main church. The second turret on the opposite end is far less visible, and repays a few extra steps around the block to see its stonework.
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