ApartmentAvignon (84)

In Avignon’s historic centre, a 200-m² duplex flat with a patio balcony and view of the Palais des Papes. The flat occupies nearly the entirety, except for the ground floor, of a house with various architectural styles, located at the bend of an old alleyway. Among the most calm and forgotten in the city, this small street once formed a bend near the house leading to a well, which in times gone by, provided water to travelling pilgrims. However – because there is always a “however” – legend has it that, as the pilgrim drank, their degree of honesty or wickedness was evaluated. Based on the result of this crude inspection, it was not uncommon for a large iron chain, emerging from who knows where, to stretch across the passageway and imprison the rascal.
The “rue du Puits de la chaîne” (Street of the Well and Chain) then became the “rue Lierrée” due to the thick ivy that formed a verdant vault above the street, unifying the house with its immediate neighbours. The dark foliage perpetuated, in its own right, the savage mystery of the terrible chain, which would immediately put a stop to any inopportune conversation or gossip.
Tastefully restored, after having been abandoned for some time, the house’s wide balustrade on its first-floor patio immediately draws the eye: forming a convex arch, which breaks with the straight lines of the surrounding classical buildings, it marks the approximate location of the former well and its chain, buried forever according to local historians. Today, private mansions and gardens, tree-filled courtyards and imposing town houses border and embrace on all sides what some still call today the “house of the well and chain”.
Besides the baroque undulation created by the baluster guardrails atop a windowless wall, nothing else on its exterior makes the residence stand out. All the interest of this house is inside, and so much the better.
This is yet, another one of these secret and mysterious places that Avignon loves to cultivate along its almost country-like streets, sheltered from everything and yet far from nothing.