Hôtel particulier
Encyclopedia
In French contexts an hôtel particulier (otɛl paʁtikylje) is an urban "private house" of a grand sort. Whereas an ordinary maison was built as part of a row, sharing party wall
s with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a street, an hôtel particulier was often free-standing, and by the 18th century it would always be located entre cour et jardin, between the entrance court, the cour d'honneur
, and the garden behind. There are hôtels particuliers in many large cities, such as Paris
, Bordeaux
, Albi, Aix en Provence, Avignon
, Caen
, Lyon
, Montpellier
, Nancy, Rouen
, Rennes
, Toulouse
and Troyes
.
The word hôtel represents the Old French hostel
, which has developed a more specific modern English meaning. Cognates can be confusing: the modern usage in English of hotel
denotes a commercial hotel accommodating travellers, a hostelry that is more ambitious than an inn
. Modern French also applies hôtel to commercial hotels: confusingly the Hôtel de Crillon
on the Place de la Concorde
was built as an hôtel particulier and is today a hotel. The Hôtel des Invalides retains its early sense of a hospice for war wounded.
In French, an hôtel de ville or mairie is a town hall (and not a hotel), such as the Hôtel de Ville, Paris
or the Hôtel de Ville de Montréal
. Other official bodies might give their name to the structure in which they maintained a seat: aside from Paris. several other French cities have an Hôtel de Cluny, maintained by the abbey of Cluny. The Hôtel de Sens
was built as the Paris residence of the archbishop of Sens.
Hôtel-Dieu ("hostel of God") is the old name given to the principal hospital
in French towns, such as the Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune.
In Toulouse:
Party wall
Party wall is a dividing partition between two adjoining buildings that is shared by the tenants of each residence or business. The wall is sometimes constructed over the center of the property line dividing two terraced flats or row houses so that one half of the wall is on each property...
s with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a street, an hôtel particulier was often free-standing, and by the 18th century it would always be located entre cour et jardin, between the entrance court, the cour d'honneur
Cour d'Honneur
Cour d'Honneur is the architectural term for defining a three-sided courtyard, created when the main central block, or corps de logis, is flanked by symmetrical advancing secondary wings, containing minor rooms...
, and the garden behind. There are hôtels particuliers in many large cities, such as Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, Albi, Aix en Provence, Avignon
Avignon
Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...
, Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....
, Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
, Montpellier
Hôtels of Montpellier
The city of Montpellier, in southern France, has a large number of noteworthy historical Hôtels in its old centre. These Hôtels are listed on this page with a short description...
, Nancy, Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
, Rennes
Rennes
Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...
, Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
and Troyes
Troyes
Troyes is a commune and the capital of the Aube department in north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about southeast of Paris. Many half-timbered houses survive in the old town...
.
The word hôtel represents the Old French hostel
Hostel
Hostels provide budget oriented, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, although private rooms may also be available...
, which has developed a more specific modern English meaning. Cognates can be confusing: the modern usage in English of hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
denotes a commercial hotel accommodating travellers, a hostelry that is more ambitious than an inn
INN
InterNetNews is a Usenet news server package, originally released by Rich Salz in 1991, and presented at the Summer 1992 USENIX conference in San Antonio, Texas...
. Modern French also applies hôtel to commercial hotels: confusingly the Hôtel de Crillon
Hôtel de Crillon
The Hôtel de Crillon in Paris is one of the oldest luxury hotels in the world. The hotel is located at the foot of the Champs-Élysées and is one of two identical stone palaces on the Place de la Concorde. The Crillon has 103 guest rooms and 44 suites...
on the Place de la Concorde
Place de la Concorde
The Place de la Concorde in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.- History :...
was built as an hôtel particulier and is today a hotel. The Hôtel des Invalides retains its early sense of a hospice for war wounded.
In French, an hôtel de ville or mairie is a town hall (and not a hotel), such as the Hôtel de Ville, Paris
Hôtel de Ville, Paris
The Hôtel de Ville |City Hall]]) in :Paris, France, is the building housing the City of Paris's administration. Standing on the place de l'Hôtel de Ville in the city's IVe arrondissement, it has been the location of the municipality of Paris since 1357...
or the Hôtel de Ville de Montréal
Montreal City Hall
The five-storey Montreal City Hall is the work of architects Henri-Maurice Perrault and Alexander Cowper Hutchison, and was built between 1872 and 1878 in the Second Empire style. It is located in Old Montreal, between Place Jacques-Cartier and the Champ de Mars, at 275 Notre-Dame Street East...
. Other official bodies might give their name to the structure in which they maintained a seat: aside from Paris. several other French cities have an Hôtel de Cluny, maintained by the abbey of Cluny. The Hôtel de Sens
Hôtel de Sens
The Hôtel de Sens is a city palace in the Marais, in the IVe arrondissement of Paris, France.It was originally owned by the archbishops of Sens. The building is in between late Gothic and early Renaissance style, and now houses the Forney art library. This mansion is one of three medieval private...
was built as the Paris residence of the archbishop of Sens.
Hôtel-Dieu ("hostel of God") is the old name given to the principal hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
in French towns, such as the Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune.
Examples
Some Parisian hôtels particuliers with individual entries:- Hôtel de SoubiseHôtel de SoubiseThe Hôtel de Soubise is a city mansion entre cour et jardin , located at 60 rue des Francs-Bourgeois, in the IIIe arrondissement of Paris....
- Hôtel Salomon de RothschildHôtel Salomon de RothschildHôtel Salomon de Rothschild at 11. rue Berryer in the 8th arrondissement in Paris, France, is a former residence of Adèle Hannah Charlotte Rothschild , the widow of Salomon James de Rothschild of the Rothschild banking family of France...
- Hôtel LambertHôtel LambertHôtel Lambert is a hôtel particulier, a grand mansion townhouse, on the Quai Anjou on the eastern tip of the Île Saint-Louis, Paris IVème; the name, Hôtel Lambert, was a sobriquet that designated a 19th-century political faction of Polish exiles, who gathered there.-Architectural history:The house...
- Hôtel MatignonHôtel MatignonThe Hôtel Matignon is the official residence of the Prime Minister of France. It is located in the VIIe arrondissement of Paris, France.The address of Hotel Matignon is 57 rue de Varenne, Paris, France.-History:...
- Hôtel de SensHôtel de SensThe Hôtel de Sens is a city palace in the Marais, in the IVe arrondissement of Paris, France.It was originally owned by the archbishops of Sens. The building is in between late Gothic and early Renaissance style, and now houses the Forney art library. This mansion is one of three medieval private...
- Hôtel de RambouilletHôtel de RambouilletThe Hôtel de Rambouillet was the Paris residence of Madame de Rambouillet, who ran a renowned literary salon there from about 1607 until her death in 1665...
- Hôtel BironHôtel BironThe Hôtel Biron is an hôtel particulier in the rue de Varenne, Paris VIIème, that was built by Jacques Gabriel and his associate designer Jean Aubert, in 1728-31 Since 1919 it has housed the Musée Auguste Rodin....
- Hôtel d'Evreux
- Hôtel de Cluny
- Hôtel Carnavalet
- Hôtel de Salm
- Hôtel Grimod de La ReynièreHôtel Grimod de La ReynièreThe Hôtel Grimod de La Reynière was an hôtel particulier in Paris, in the corner between Avenue Gabriel and Rue Boissy d'Anglas.It was built in 1775 in a Neo-Classical style by Jean-Benoît-Vincent Barré for the fermier général Laurent Grimod de La Reynière...
- Hôtel Jacquemart-AndréMusée Jacquemart-AndréThe Musée Jacquemart-André is a public museum located at 158 Boulevard Haussmann in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The museum was created from the private home of Édouard André and Nélie Jacquemart to display the art they collected during their lives.-History:Edouard André, the scion of a...
- Hôtel de MarignyHôtel de MarignyThe Hôtel de Marigny is a town house in Paris, France, on the Avenue Marigny, not far from the Elysée Palace. It is used as a residence for state visitors to France. The house has been the property of the French government since 1972...
- Hôtel de LauzunHôtel de LauzunThe Hôtel de Lauzun on the quai d'Anjou, Île Saint-Louis, Paris, is the rival of the Hôtel Lambert among the few hôtels particuliers that retain their rich carved, painted, mirrored and gilded interiors from the time of Louis XIV....
- Hôtel de BeauvaisHôtel de BeauvaisThe Hôtel de Beauvais is a hôtel particulier located in Paris in the 4th arrondissement at 68 rue Francois-Miron . It was built by the royal architect Antoine Le Pautre for Catherine Beauvais in 1657...
In Toulouse:
- Hôtel d'AssézatHôtel d'AssézatThe Hôtel d'Assézat in Toulouse, France, is a Renaissance hôtel particulier of the 16th century which houses the Bemberg Foundation, a major art gallery of the city.-History:...
Further reading
- Monographs have been published on some outstanding Parisian hôtels particuliers.
- The classic photographic survey, now a rare book found only in large art libraries, is the series Les Vieux Hotels de Paris by J. Vacquer, published in the teens and twenties of the 20th century, which takes Paris quarter by quarter and which illustrates many hôtels particuliers that have been demolished during the 20th century.
- Blanc, Olivier, Hôtels particuliers de Paris (1998)
- Caylux, Odile et al. Les Hôtels particuliers d'Arles (2000)
- Cros, Philippe,Hôtels particuliers de France (2001)
- Naudin, Jean-Baptiste et al., Hôtels particuliers de Paris: Visite privée (1999).
- Papillault, Remi Les hôtels particuliers du XVIe siècle à Toulouse (Serie Memoires des pays d'Oc)