La place au Beurre (Butter Square)

Formerly known as the place au Ruches (Hive Square) and then place au Beurre-de-Pot (Butter Pot Square), this is where winter butter was sold –in stoneware pots with extra salt to keep it fresh for longer. Nowadays it could equally well be called Creperie Square, as their terraces fill most of the square!

The facades of the 17th century wooden houses consist of straight poles with the overhang reduced to a minimum and the side walls are built of stone to limit the risk of spreading in the event of a fire. Two 16th century prebendal houses (4 and 6, rue du Lycée) have arched doors, braces and pretty decorative leaf motifs on the windowsills.

No. 1 in the same street is one of the smallest wooden houses in Quimper. Single-storey, it has a gabled timber facade on the street side and a stone facade on the square, which is actually an ancient adjoining wall, a testament to the expansion of the square over the years..

At No. 3 one can see a wooden house that is characteristic of 17th century construction methods: fire-proof walls stressing cantilevered, closely spaced vertical posts and a decorative denticulate top plate.

It is on this square, once linked to the the Jesuit College by the current rue du Lycée, that the printer Guillaume Leblanc worked, as evidenced by the engraved name plaque from 1683 that is displayed on the ground floor of the house at the bottom of square (n ° 13 rue du Sallé), its façade decorated with a mosaic extolling the virtues of Kerbourc'h wine.

The printed documents were mainly intended for the Jesuit College and included religious works, sometimes in the Breton language.