Hôtel dit Bodard de la Jacopière
MonumentHidden Treasure
Hôtel dit Bodard de la Jacopière, located in Chinon (Indre-et-Loire), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Chinon, Indre-et-Loire, Centre-Val de Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.1672, 0.2345
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00097688
In the heart of Chinon, this Renaissance town house boasts sculpted dormer windows that were partially hammered out during the Revolution - silent witnesses to a tumultuous history between aristocratic elegance and revolutionary fury.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
Nestling in the medieval and Renaissance fabric of Chinon, the Hôtel Bodard de la Jacopière is one of those discreet buildings that condense several centuries of urban and architectural history into a single façade. Listed as a Historic Monument in 2016, it belongs to that precious category of provincial town houses that the centuries have shaped, transformed and sometimes mutilated, without ever completely erasing their original character. What strikes you straight away is the uniqueness of its dormer windows. Sculpted in the Renaissance style, they bear witness to an architectural refinement that, in the 16th century, placed Chinon in the wake of the great construction sites along the Loire. Some of them, visible from rue Voltaire, still bear the scars of revolutionary hammering: heraldic decorations or ornaments deemed too aristocratic, systematically mutilated by the sans-culottes as in so many other homes in the Loire Valley. Paradoxically, these stone wounds have become one of the most moving testimonies to the building. The hotel blends into Chinon's urban landscape with the elegant discretion typical of Touraine's bourgeois and administrative residences. The façade interacts with the surrounding built environment without seeking to dominate it, in the manner of architecture that knows it is the repository of a history greater than itself. For the attentive visitor, the stroll along rue Voltaire offers a glimpse into local history: each eroded or truncated dormer window is a page torn out to be carefully reread. Chinon, a royal and medieval town par excellence, provides an incomparable setting for this hotel. Between the royal fortress overlooking the Vienne and the charmingly unspoilt Rue Haute-Saint-Maurice, the Hôtel Bodard de la Jacopière invites you to take a journey back in time, as much architectural as human - that of a Touraine bourgeoisie who, from the 16th to the 18th century, built with taste and managed with authority the forest resources of an entire region.
Architecture
The Hôtel Bodard de la Jacopière is a typical example of Touraine civil architecture from the 16th and 17th centuries, characterised by a marriage between local medieval building traditions and the decorative contributions of the Italian Renaissance. White tufa stone, the preferred material in the Loire Valley, was probably used for most of the masonry work, giving the building the luminous hue and ability to accommodate the fine sculpture found in the region's grand residences. The Renaissance dormers are the most remarkable and best-preserved architectural feature of the building. These roof openings, framed by pilasters, pediments and sculpted motifs characteristic of the Renaissance vocabulary - foliage, mascarons, scrolls - bear witness to an ornamental care that places the residence above a simple utilitarian programme. Those facing the rue Voltaire bear the marks of the revolutionary hammering, their partially destroyed decorations creating a reading of two superimposed temporal levels: the elegance of the 16th century and the violence of the late 18th century. The general composition of the building, based around a street façade and probably an inner courtyard in keeping with the custom of provincial mansions, reflects the successive transformations of the 16th and 17th centuries. Despite these alterations, the building has retained sufficient volumetric coherence to justify its listing as a Historic Monument, testifying to the quality of its original construction and the resistance of its most characteristic decorative features over the centuries.
Related Figures
Famille Bodard de la Jacopière — famille éponyme liée à la demeure, probablement officiers ou notables chinonais des XVIIe-XVIIIe sièclesJean-Baptiste Colbert — ministre de Louis XIV dont l'ordonnance de 1669 sur les Eaux et Forêts régissait l'institution qui occupait l'édificeOfficiers de la maîtrise des Eaux et Forêts de Chinon — administrateurs royaux ayant utilisé l'hôtel comme annexe administrative aux XVIIe-XVIIIe sièclesArtisans lapicides tourangeaux du XVIe siècle — sculpteurs anonymes des lucarnes Renaissance, héritiers des chantiers royaux de la Loire
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Hôtel dit Bodard de la Jacopière located?
Hôtel dit Bodard de la Jacopière is located in Chinon, Indre-et-Loire department, Centre-Val de Loire region, France.
When was Hôtel dit Bodard de la Jacopière built?
Hôtel dit Bodard de la Jacopière dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Hôtel dit Bodard de la Jacopière open to visitors?
Hôtel dit Bodard de la Jacopière is currently closed to visitors.