luxury architect house for sale Meuse, France

Manor in Bar-le-Duc. The property is revealed behind a gate that provides, from the street, a discreet entrance to a vast garden of just under 4000m2, surrounded by walls and full of trees. Built in 1886 for Frédéric Dyckhoff by his father-in-law, architect Charles Demoget, the manor rises set back in the middle of the garden. Elevated on three levels above cellars under a slate roof, the manor features facades made of Savonnières stone. The main facade is animated by particularly rich sculpted decor. The tall windows with small panes are framed by moldings and topped with pierced friezes of scrolls and floral patterns. Below one of them, a sculpted register associates a cogwheel, pincers, and hammer, surrounded by foliage and volutes, with a frieze of small floral motifs, evoking the industrial world. The entrance, preceded by a stone staircase, is protected by a long metal awning that runs the entire length of the facade, which is now heavily altered and partially glazed. The double-door, adorned with ironwork, is surmounted by a decorative transom. The base retains a wooden service door. To the left, the facade still bears the traces in the masonry of a disappeared continuous balcony. Adjoining the main elevation, a staircase turret is topped with a steep slate roof, the upper part distinguished by arched openings adorned with stained glass. The openings, carefully framed with molded stone, are accompanied by cornices and bands that rhythm the different levels. The garden creates a true intimate space and develops a vegetation that has become particularly generous today, among which remain notably a ginkgo biloba, a purple beech, a lime tree, and a walnut tree. An emblematic property both for its architecture and its importance to local industrial history, it embodies the success of the Dyckhoff family, which played a major role in the history of the region. It was in Bar-le-Duc that Rudolf Diesel and Frédéric Dyckhoff, engineer and industrialist close to Gustave Eiffel’s circle, designed the very first functional diesel engine in July 1894.This description has been automatically translated from French.