Look into the courtyard, and you will spot a striking stone spiral staircase wrapped in delicate open tracery, sitting right next to a slender, round corner turret. Henri Chambellan, a massively wealthy cloth merchant who practically ran Dijon as its chief magistrate back in the fourteen nineties, funded this extravagant upgrade. He clearly wanted to make an impression. He transformed a rather ordinary old house into this luxurious private mansion, showing off the finest Flamboyant Gothic architecture of his day.
If you are unfamiliar with the term, Flamboyant Gothic is a late medieval style known for ornate, flowing stone carvings that look a bit like flickering flames. To the left of the stone tower, you can see a beautiful two-story wooden gallery. To the right sits a magnificent stone wing featuring tall mullioned windows, which are simply grand windows divided by heavy vertical stone bars.
There is a wonderful little secret hidden at the very top of that openwork spiral staircase. The heavy stone ribs of the vaulted ceiling all converge and appear to balance entirely on the carved shoulder of a tiny sculpted man carrying a basket. The people of Dijon affectionately call him the gardener.
The city owned this architectural treasure for nearly a century before selling it to a private collector in two thousand and eight, who eventually renovated the space to include a small shop. Fortunately for us, the courtyard itself is open twenty-four hours a day. It is a quiet reminder of just how powerful the merchants of medieval Burgundy truly were. Take a moment to admire the stonework. When you are ready, we can head to the next stop.
