PropertyNevers (58)

A former national banking establishment with its grounds ready to be reinvented, two hours from Paris, in the historical city centre of Nevers. In the middle of the historical city centre, on a street notable for its buildings dating from the Renaissance up through the Enlightenment and French Revolutions, is a vast banking establishment from 1854, unchanged since the 1920s and built over the medieval abbatial church of Saint Martin’s abbey.
Built in an L shape and three storeys tall, in addition to an attic and basement level, the edifice is surrounded, in the back, by verdant grounds enclosed by walls topped with metal fencing. In the L’s inner corner, a vast one-storey extension was added with a glass roof and a rooftop terrace, which is safeguarded by a wrought-iron guardrail.
Facing east and south, the bank is partially preceded to the south by a paved courtyard enclosed by solid fences painted in faded imperial green, while the main entrance gate is framed by two wrought-iron pillars, topped with lanterns. Designed for parking vehicles, and bordered by a row of box trees, the space separates the bank from the caretaker’s cottage. To the north, located between the bank and an outbuilding and accessible via a gate of the same colour situated between two ashlar stone walls, a rear paved courtyard provides a second entrance to the property. In addition, a magnificent octagonal turret topped with a finial flanks this side of the establishment.
Under its hipped slate roof with a slight eave supported by sculpted stone soffits, the bank contains a floor area of approximately 3,600 m². Two domes with finials, the roofs of which alternate between rectangular and fish-scale slate tiles, are located on the main street-side façade as well as the northern façade facing the grounds. Mostly clad in plaster, the building also has white ashlar stone adorning its basement level, quoins and window and door surrounds. Rectangular or arched windows and doors symmetrically cadence the edifice and are safeguarded by half-louvred or louvred shutters, while its cross-windows are protected by metal bars.