ClasséHouse · protected 1927Maison à pans de boisPart of the building is protectedPhoto: Chabe01 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Ancienne abbaye de Brou · Photo: Marmontel · CC BY 2.035historic monuments
History of Bourg-en-Bresse · Monuments historiques
35 historic monuments, 6 classé
For every 10,000 residents Bourg-en-Bresse counts 8.3 monuments, more per resident than 82% of compared French towns, against 2.5 in the median compared French town. Bourg-en-Bresse’s oldest monuments date from the 15th century. 34 of Bourg-en-Bresse’s monuments are in our photos.
Monuments historiques
35
8.3 per 10,000 residents
median compared town 2.5
median compared town 2.5
Classé
6
the highest protection
Inscrit
29
the second level
Oldest part
15th c.
of any listed monument
Homes before 1919
5.7%
median compared town 7.4%
In pictures
Bourg-en-Bresse in 34 photos
Nearly every classé monument, photographed. Tap a photo to step through them full screen.
Maison de boisClassé
Collège des Jésuites (ancien)Classé
MaisonClassé
Maison à pans de boisClassé
Église Notre-DameClassé+29See all photosPhotos from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its license; names open the monument’s page.
Map
Where Bourg-en-Bresse’s monuments stand
Every monument with a point on the ministry’s list; the larger, darker dots are classé.
ClasséInscritWithin 400 m of Maison à pans de bois
5 of 6classé monuments stand within 400 m of Maison à pans de bois, with 30 of the town’s 35 monuments.
Tap a dot to open the monument’s page: its record, photo and the monuments around it.
35 monuments by protection
6 Classé29 Inscrit
Classé is the higher protection: any work on the building needs the State’s permission. Work on an inscrit building must be declared to the State in advance. Around both, building work in sight of the monument (usually within 500 m) needs the agreement of the architecte des Bâtiments de France.
Points as the ministry gives them: a monument spread over several plots has one point.
Classé
6 classé monuments in Bourg-en-Bresse
Classé is France’s highest protection for a building, held by about a third of the monuments on the list. 4 of the 6 are protected in part only (a façade, a roof, a room). Each card opens the monument’s page.
ClasséAbbey · protected 1862Ancienne abbaye de BrouPart of the building is protectedPhoto: Marmontel · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Classé
Classé
ClasséSchool · protected 1950Collège des Jésuites (ancien)Part of the building is protectedPhoto: Guy Prieur · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
ClasséHouse · protected 1977Maison, 17 rue BourgmayerPart of the building is protectedPhoto: Chabe01 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Inscrit
29 inscrit monuments in Bourg-en-Bresse
Inscrit is the second level of protection: the building is worth keeping, and any work on it must be declared.
All 28, A to Z
Chapelle Sainte-MadeleineChâteau de Pennesuyt, dit aussi château de LoëzeHôpital, boulevard de BrouHôtel de la Teyssonnière (ancien Hôtel de la Gabelle)Hôtel de villeHôtel particulierHôtel particulier, dit hôtel de LorasImmeuble, 10 rue Victor-BaschImmeuble, 20 rue SamaritaineImmeuble, 26 rue Victor-BaschImmeuble, 8 place de l'Hôtel-de-VilleLe Café françaisMaison sise 7 rue Jules MigonneyMaison, 11 rue TeynièreMaison, 12 rue du Maréchal-FochMaison, 14 rue du Maréchal-FochMaison, 15 rue BourgmayerMaison, 16 rue du Maréchal-FochMaison, 30 rue de la RépubliqueMaison, 5 rue Jules-MigonneyMaison, 5 rue TeynièreMaison, 7 rue d'EspagneMonument aux mortsMonument du général JoubertMoulin de Crève-CoeurPorte des JacobinsPréfecture (ancienne)Statue de Bichat
15 more, named only by their kind
15 more are named in the list only by their kind: 9 houses (maisons), 4 buildings (immeubles) and 2 others, most from the 15th century. The 14 with an address are in the list above, by it.
15th c.5
16th c.4
18th c.5
19th c.1
What’s protected
Most of Bourg-en-Bresse’s monuments are houses and homes
Each monument under the main domain Mérimée gives it.
Houses & homes21
Public & civic5
Tombs & cemeteries3
Religious buildings2
Industrial1
Shops & trade1
Houses & homes: 21 of 35 monuments (60%). 2 are religious buildings, 2 of them classé.
Mérimée files each monument under one main domain: a château with its chapel counts once. 2 have no domain on the list.
How old
How old Bourg-en-Bresse’s monuments are
Each monument once, by the oldest part the list dates.
Prehistory & Antiquity to the 4th c.0
Middle Ages 5th–15th c.8
16th to 18th century Renaissance to Revolution19
19th century 1801–19005
20th century and later since 19012
8 of 34 dated monuments have parts from before 1500. The oldest dated: Hôtel particulier (15th & 16th c.). 1 monument has no date on the list.
When protected
12 of Bourg-en-Bresse’s monuments were protected in 1947
Monuments by the year they were first protected.
1947 · 12
186018801900192019401960198020002020
First protected, in 1862: Ancienne abbaye de Brou. 12 were protected in 1947 alone. 5 have been added since 2011.
Born before 1900
50 people born in Bourg-en-Bresse before 1900
The 20 best known on the line, and eight of them below.
Jean de Loriol
Antoine Favre
Marie-Émilie de Joly de Choin
Louis-Albert Joly de Choin
Jérôme Lalande
Marie-Étienne Populus
Claude Jean-Baptiste de Garron de La Bévière
Denis Ferdinand Picquet
Antoine-François Gauthier des Orcières
Thomas Riboud
Jean-Marie-Claude-Alexandre Goujon
Hippolyte Paul Jaÿr
Charles-Paul Diday
Eugène Silvain
Marie-Joseph Lagrange
Marie-Eugène Debeney
Aimé Cotton
Léo Wanner
André Diethelm
René Belin
1500165018001950
AF
Antoine Favre1557–1624 · Savoisian lawyer, first President of the Sovereign Senate of Savoy
MÉ
Marie-Émilie de Joly de Choin1670–1732 · French lady-in-waiting
JL
Jérôme Lalande1732–1807 · French astronomer (*1732 – †1807)
JM
Jean-Marie-Claude-Alexandre Goujon1766–1795 · French politician
HP
Hippolyte Paul Jaÿr1801–1900 · French politician
CP
Charles-Paul Diday1813–1894 · P. Diday, ex-surgeon to the Hospital de l'Antiquaille, Lyons
ES
Eugène Silvain1851–1930 · French actor
MJ
Marie-Joseph Lagrange1855–1938 · French theologian
Everyone born in Bourg-en-Bresse Birthplaces from Wikidata, checked against Wikipedia.
Towns its size
Bourg-en-Bresse has the 9th most monuments of 41 towns its size
Compared French towns of 39,800 to 45,500 residents, by historic monuments.
Bourg-en-Bresse35
#9 of 41for monuments per resident (8.3 per 10,000). Most per resident: Arras, Paris 6e and Châlons-en-Champagne.
The median town of these has 9. 2 of the 41 have none.
Neighbors
Historic monuments in the towns around Bourg-en-Bresse
| Town | Residents | Monuments | Classé | Protected area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bourg-en-Bresse | 42,372 | 35 | 6 | — |
| Saint-Denis-lès-Bourg | 6,160 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Péronnas | 6,444 | 1 | 0 | — |
| Viriat | 7,102 | 1 | 0 | — |
| Ceyzériat | 3,328 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Polliat | 2,741 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Saint-Étienne-du-Bois | 2,584 | 0 | 0 | — |
In brief
Bourg-en-Bresse in brief
Measured per resident, Bourg-en-Bresse has more historic monuments than 82% of compared French towns. In all there are 35 historic monuments, 6 of them classé, including Ancienne abbaye de Brou. Maison à pans de bois sits at the heart of it all, with 5 of the town’s classé monuments within 400 m. In 2023 the Mission Patrimoine picked Église Notre-Dame as a monument in danger to save.
Only 8 of the 41 towns nearest its size have more historic monuments. Of the whole list, 60% are houses and homes. Of the 34 with a date, 19 come from the 16th to 18th centuries. Beyond that, 5.7% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 7.4% in the median compared French town.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Monuments historiques. France protects buildings at two levels. Classé, the higher (about a third of the list), means any work needs the State’s permission; inscrit means work must be declared to the State in advance. The Culture ministry’s Mérimée base lists every protected building, and this page counts them.
- Partly protected. Many entries protect part of a building only (its façades and roofs, a staircase, a painted room). Each counts as one monument, like a fully protected one.
- Where a monument is counted. In the commune named on its protection, moved to today’s commune where communes have since merged. A monument listed for several communes counts in each.
- Sites patrimoniaux remarquables. Since 2016 France’s protected historic areas (the former secteurs sauvegardés, ZPPAUP and AVAP) share one name. Inside one, building work follows the area’s plan and needs the agreement of the architecte des Bâtiments de France.
- What isn’t here. Protected objects (furniture, organs, paintings), old buildings with no protection, UNESCO World Heritage listings and labels such as “Plus Beaux Villages de France” aren’t on this list, so this page doesn’t count them.
- No History Grade yet. Everything on this page is described, not graded: France’s History Grade isn’t built yet.
Questions about the history of Bourg-en-Bresse
How many historic monuments are there in Bourg-en-Bresse?
The Culture ministry lists 35 historic monuments in Bourg-en-Bresse: 6 classé and 29 inscrit.
Which monuments in Bourg-en-Bresse are classé?
6, among them Maison à pans de bois, Ancienne abbaye de Brou, Église Notre-Dame, Maison de bois and Collège des Jésuites (ancien).
How old are the monuments of Bourg-en-Bresse?
The oldest parts of its listed monuments date from the 15th century.
When were monuments in Bourg-en-Bresse first protected?
The first in 1862, the latest in 2022.
How old are the homes in Bourg-en-Bresse?
5.7% of its main homes were built before 1919 (median compared French town: 7.4%).
France has no History Grade yet: this page describes, it doesn’t grade.
Sources: Ministère de la Culture, Mérimée base on POP (immeubles protégés au titre des monuments historiques), October 2026 · Ministère de la Culture, sites patrimoniaux remarquables, October 2026 · INSEE, census 2023 (main homes by build period) · Wikidata and Wikipedia (people born here) · Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata (photos of the monuments, each with its own credit and license) · IGN Admin Express (boundaries) · Medians and percentiles: TownRatings, over compared French towns, updated November 9, 2026. Under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab).
Contains public sector information under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab): INSEE, DGFiP, the Interior Ministry’s statistics service (SSMSI), the Ministry of Education (DEPP), the Health Ministry’s statistics service (DREES) and the Housing Ministry (Carte des loyers). Commune boundaries: IGN Admin Express.