Many of the half-timbered houses typical of the medieval part of Troyes were actually rebuilt during the Renaissance, following numerous fires. Several of them were also restored by the municipality and the inhabitants in the 1950s. Troyes holds one of the richest collections of half-timbered houses in France. Their characteristic vertical, horizontal, or diagonal beams reveal the skeleton of the buildings, the walls of which mainly consist of cob covered with whitewash.