VILLA MARIE-THERESE - Promenade Hanrion 2

This remarkable villa, set in the middle of a large garden, was built in 1889 to plans by architect Charles Soubre for Georges Frère-Orban, as evidenced by the anchors forming the initials F and O on one of the high chimney stacks. The Anglo-Norman-style cottage is partly clad in painted half-timbering on the first floor. The moulded wooden cross windows are adorned with grinning heads under the lintels. The high, overhanging roofs have exceptional carved wooden eaves and rest on brackets that are also decorated with masks. The woodwork, naturally present in the frames, fascias and railings, is always painted in fairly bright colours. This gives the facades a liveliness and variety of colour that is tending to disappear nowadays.Half-timbering, a centuries-old tradition, but especially half-timbering, is particularly popular on the gables of villas in spa towns for its decorative effect. Timber-framed houses are made up of a series of structural timbers assembled in a single plane. The infill between these wooden elements is traditionally made of cob or bricks. False half-timbering, very popular from the end of the 19th century, gives a look similar to that of timber panelling.century, gives a similar appearance to half-timbering, but is in fact a cement rendering painted onto the masonry.