To run one’s hand over a weathered plinth is to converse with the past. As a member of the guild, I often find my thoughts returning to our brothers in 18th-century Paris. These men, particularly the migrant masons from the Creuse, were the silent architects of a new era. When they stood before the Bastille,…
In 1638, Michel Villedo stood as a titan of the Grand Siècle. Born in the village of Pionnat, he was a man of the Ancien Régime, an era where power was centralized and order was paramount. For Villedo, the master mason was a weaver of national prestige. His politics were defined by the stability of…