Pilori Square

Place du Pilori

The Guérande audio-guided tour leads you to Place du Pilori, where all the medieval soul of the city unfolds, with its cobbles and its stone houses. Its name recalls a judicial past quite different from the peaceful atmosphere of today.

A medieval place of justice

In the Middle Ages, the square drew its importance from the pillory, an instrument used to render justice: a post to which the condemned were attached so that they were exposed to everyone's view. This penalty, called public exposure, sanctioned offences such as theft or false testimony. Appearing in the twelfth century, the pillory spread to many squares of France, which have often kept the name. On the square remain a public well dug in the fourteenth century and a corbelled timber-framed house, whose floor projects over the street.

What there is to see

Today, Place du Pilori is a pleasant space lined with small shops. One admires there the public well of the fourteenth century, the corbelled house with light blue timber framing and, opposite, a stone house bearing the sign "Au bonhomme Guérande", at the corner of which a carved head of the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries intrigues visitors. A place laden with history, where several medieval traces have crossed time.

Practical information

Place du Pilori is in the heart of the medieval city of Guérande. It is a public space freely accessible at all hours and on the level. The well, the old houses and the carved head can be contemplated from the square; the shops follow their own hours.

Why is the square called Place du Pilori?

Because in the Middle Ages the pillory stood there, an instrument of justice where the condemned were exposed to everyone's view.

What is a corbelled house?

A house whose floor, wider than the ground floor, projects over the street, which enlarged the living space while sheltering passers-by.