Beschreibung:
The Grou Estate : three kinds of civil architecture in 18th century Nantes. Kept in the public record offices in Loire-Atlantique, the sharing out of the estate of widow Grou, the wife of Guillaume Grou, a ship-owner and merchant in 18th century Nantes, represents a precise documentary source about the landed property of an upper middle class person. Indeed, it includes the detailed description of the five houses for renting which belonged to him, one of which being his own town house, on Feydeau Island. These houses, -all close to the commercial port, on the bank of the river Loire were meant to be rented for residential or professional purposes. The study of this group of houses enables us to follow the evolution of the Nantes cityscape, which tends, on one hand, to uniformize façades and create a whole and, on the other hand, to improve the laving out of apartments. Besides, the study of the drawing of Guillaume Grou’s estate and of his country house leads to establish that the profits from trading were often invested in the purchase of country houses around Nantes.