Maison du Croissant (House of the Crescent), Tours

The Maison du Croissant, also known as the Maison de la Belle Teinturière, is a fine example of a Medieval French mansion. Built some time between the second half of the 15th century and the first quarter of the 16th century, this palatial bourgeois house stands in the area that was once inhabited by silk workers, who settled in Tours around 1470 at the behest of King Louis XI.

The building owes its name to the tufa staircase tower, standing on one of its corners. The coat of arms of Saint Maurice, which crowns the front door of the tower, with a motto in the form of crescent, refers to the Order of the Crescent established in 1448 by René d'Anjou. However, no archival documents make it possible to establish precisely the relationship between this house and the knightly order.

The Gothic-style front door seems to have been installed during restoration in 1962, led by the architect Henri Enguehard. That restoration notably replaced the initial cob slabs on the façade with the decorative brick slabs. Several windows also have been restored to their original location and size, including those on the ground floor of the tower and on the two square floors of the timber-framed upper part of the main building.

The ground floor of the house is corbelled. The north façade, damaged during WWII, has been restored and is partly modern. The building has been registered as a historical monument since 1946.