The campaign for the House
In 2009 the Association Jean Calas, l'Europe nous regarde was set up in Toulouse by retired teacher Claude Dupuy, to campaign for the Maison Calas to be secured as " a place of memory for the values of tolerance, liberty of thought and laicity".
As the photograph shows, the building has suffered from neglect. It is a classified historical monument and parts of the structure date from the late 15th century but not a lot remains to be seen. On the road is a shuttered shopfront; the rest of the building is divided into a dozen or so apartments. Only the entrance corridor, which leads to an interior courtyard, is accessible to the public. The commercial property on the ground floor is/was leased by the Toulouse supermarket group Casino which chooses to leave the premises empty. In March 2012 tenants were informed that, after seven years, there were plans for a new supérette, but this did not in fact materialise.
In 2012 the freehold of the building changed hands. The new proprietors are the Tanahair financial group (Agence Tanahair in Cannes). Claude Dupuy regretted that the municipality had not taken up its right of preemption: however, the price was prohibitive: 330 square metres in a prime site in the town centre sold for 950,000 euros.
Following the commemorations, the project for the acquisition of the house gained momentum. On 2nd July 2015 the Association met with the Town council, as well as the departmental and regional authorities who agreed in principle to participate. Additional support seemed assured by the establishment in Toulouse of a new Conseil de la laïcité to promote liberty of conscience and respect for religious and cultural diversity. Claude Dupuy was "resolutely optimistic", despite the huge costs which would be involved in the purchase and renovation of the building. The outcome is still by no means certain. There have been new problems. In the Spring of 2016 an architect from the Bâtiments Historiques (ABF) asked Tanahair to restore the courtyard to its 18th-century appearance and strip back the walls to see what remained of "the shop of Jean Calas". Instead new, unauthorised construction work was begun. In March 2017 La Dépêche du Midi reported that this had been successfully halted; those involved were still optimistic that an agreement could be worked out which would allow the property to be used as an educational and tourist centre. I am not sure what stage the negotiations are at now. The house was opened as usual in September last year for the journées de patrimoine, but the campaign seems to have gone quiet. The Association website is still asking for signatures to its petition.
A question of politics?
Clearly yes. .
The desire to commemorate toleration is very laudible, but it is all a bit strident. It is hard to imagine a "Council for Laicity" or anything remotely like it, ever being set up in Britain. In a city like Toulouse, where traditional Catholic feeling remains strong, there is certainly an element of provocation. For Claude Dupuy the acquisition of the house is intended to provide an opportunity for the town to demonstrate its commitment to the rehabilitation of Calas. In his view, the Toulousains have never been convinced of Calas's innocence. He points out that the 2015 plaque replaced an ambiguous sign which described the rue des Filatiers as a street "made sadly famous" by the Calas family. The Musée du Vieux Toulouse proudly displays a 19th-century painting in which the capitoul David de Baudrigue accuses Calas in front of the dead body of his son.
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| Casimir Destrem, The Arrest of Jean Calas (1879) Musée du Vieux Toulouse |
That is the official well-known history....
But one of the immediate consequences of this affair was the suppression of the annual fete in which Toulouse commemorated the massacre of 1562...There is another victim of the Calas affair who is scarcely known, the grand-son of David de Beaudrigue. David de Beaudrigue was deprived of his office in February 1765 and was so villified for his conduct, that his grand-son was guillotined under the Terror for the only crime of having such a grand-father.....
Jean Calas, victime et symbole de l'intolérance, Grand-Sud Insolite 2017
http://www.grandsudinsolite.fr/1202-31-haute-garonne-l-autre-victime--meconnue-celle-la--de-l-affaire-calas.html
(Tristan d'Escalone, aged twenty-three, "tall and with a fine and pleasant face" was guillotined in June 1793. See Axel Duboul Le tribunal révolutionnaire de Toulouse (1894), p.89
https://archive.org/details/letribunalrvolu00dubogoog/page/n102)]
References
Association Jean Calas, l'Europe nous regarde
http://www.jean-calas-toulouse-europe.com/
Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Association-Jean-Calas-LEurope-nous-regarde-229450747127366/
Students of the Collège Émile Zola retrace the steps of Jean Calas in 2015.
Articles from La Dépêche du Midi:
"Il faut sauver la maison de Jean Calas" 09.03.2012
"Robert Badinter au 250e anniversaire de la réhabilitation de Jean Calas" 09.03.2015
"La Maison Calas : projet en bonne voie" 28.06.2015
"Maison Calas : l'association enfin entendue" 22.05.2017
Historical details of the Maison Calas
Entry in Patrimoine en occitanie:The plot of land is identical to that shown on the 1680 cadastre. The ground plan of the building is the same as the 1830 plan, apart from an extension on the courtyard. The facade, which was restored in 1987, conceals a traditional wood on brick facing, laid in a St Andrew's cross pattern. The sculpted neo-classical decor is from the 19th century. The entrance door, dating from the end of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th, has been moved to the interior courtyard.
http://patrimoines.laregion.fr/fr/rechercher/recherche-base-de-donnees/index.html?notice=IA31116360&tx_patrimoinesearch_pi1%5Bstate%5D=detail_simple&tx_patrimoinesearch_pi1%5Bniveau_detail%5D=N3
Illustration and description from Athanase-Josué Coquerel, Jean Calas et sa famille (1869):
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When this drawing was made, the house was much the same as in Calas's time. The shop next to the alleyway, with the sign "Lafon, culotier" was that of Calas, the other was that of the tailor Bou, his neighbour. The alleyway, which was very long, ended in a little courtyard, from which it was separated by a low door which no longer exists. In about 1858 the facade was remodelled. On each floor a third window was added between the other two; the brick wall with facing wooden beams was plastered over; pillars were added on each side surmounted by plaster fir cones. The two shops were knocked into one. M. Berdoulat, the father of the present proprietor, took out the entrance door, with its ornamented vault, and, in a spirit of conservation, installed it in the courtyard. This door is extremely old and dates back to an era several centuries earlier than Calas. Immediately above is an escutcheon with the name of Christ, IHS
Note 1, p. 429. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57191804/f455.item
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