The main entrance leads directly into the great courtyard, around which the various constructions which make up the whole are irregularly grouped. The design of the pavilion of the façade is repeated on the inner side, but in place of the statue of the king the niche was originally occupied by a statue of Jacques Coeur. To the left of the portal, under an arcade, is the entrance to the spiral stairway (Plate LIII.) which winds within the tower to the chapel. The tympana above the three openings to this stairway are carved in relief with rude but vigorous figures, the designs being appropriate to their situation. On the tympanum most plainly shown in our illustration, for example, the carving depicts three acolytes preparing an altar for service. Throughout the house the carvings are, after the same fashion, made characteristic of the rooms or entrances which they adorn: the carvings over the kitchen staircase represent culinary operations,--a roast hanging above the fire, a boy turning the spit, a woman washing plates, a cook grinding spices,--that leading to the dining-room is ornamented with fruit-trees, and so forth. [Illustration: GOTHIC CARVED WOODWORK FIFTEENTH CENTURY _Bavarian National Museum: Munich_] The principal side of the court, architecturally considered, is opposite the main entrance (Plate LV.). The chief feature of this side is a great octagonal tower which contains the stairway leading to a dining-hall situated on the first floor and corresponding in position to the chapel in the front wing. The north and west sides of the courtyard are surrounded, on the ground floor, by cloisters (Plate LIV.) above which were the living-rooms and household offices. [Illustration: PLATE LVI HOUSE OF JACQUES COEUR: THE CHAPEL] The rear view of the building (Plate LVIII.) shows that part of the construction which was based upon the ancient rampart of the city. The two large towers are those before referred to, which were still standing as part of the rampart when the building of the house was begun. One was entirely reconstructed by Coeur, with the exception of the first story, which is of old Roman work as the layers of brick and masonry indicate; the other received only its crown and a new interior construction, and like the first, was flanked by a tower destined to serve as a cage for the stairway. [Illustration: GOTHIC CARVED WOODWORK FIFTEENTH CENTURY _Bavarian National Museum: Munich_]