Hôtel Senchon de Bournissac
MonumentHidden Treasure
Hôtel Senchon de Bournissac, located in Noves (Bouches-du-Rhône), 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
- Noves, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 43.8772, 4.9016
- Mérimée Reference
- PA13000032
In the heart of Noves, this 18th-century town house conceals exceptional Zuber panoramic wallpapers behind its orderly façade, including the famous "Views of Hindustan" in grisaille.
History
Nestling in the narrow streets of Noves, a Provencal village on the edge of the Crau plain, the Hôtel Senchon de Bournissac is one of the region's rare examples of perfectly preserved 18th-century civil architecture. Behind its sober, rigorously composed façade, the building offers visitors a rare interior marvel, where the art of Provençal bourgeois decoration reaches a remarkable level of sophistication. What really sets the Hôtel Senchon de Bournissac apart is the quality and rarity of its panoramic wallpapers. The salon contains a complete series of "Views of Hindustan", an original edition from 1807 from the workshops of the Zuber factory in Rixheim - one of the most prestigious wallpaper manufacturers in Europe, whose products adorned the homes of the French bourgeoisie as well as the White House in Washington. These panoramas, printed on engraved woodblocks, depict exotic, meticulously detailed fantasies of Indian landscapes, typical of the emerging Orientalist taste of the First Empire. The dining room features a series of grisaille decorations illustrating "the pleasures of town and country", an iconographic programme that bears witness to the French art of living, between country holidays and refined urbanity. The mantelpieces and door tops, adorned with delicate gypseries, complete a decorative ensemble of exceptional coherence and richness. The monumental staircase, the real centrepiece of the interior design, features a banister with sculpted balusters and leads to flats with "French" ceilings, whose rhythmic, polychrome exposed beams evoke the great tradition of the southern seigneurial dwelling. The north wing, added in the 19th century, extends the building with a luminous gallery opening onto the garden, where time seems to have stood still. For lovers of the interior heritage, decorative arts and the social history of Provence, the Hôtel Senchon de Bournissac is a must-see between Avignon and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Its unspoilt intimacy and authenticity make it an ideal place to discover off the beaten tourist track.
Architecture
The Hôtel Senchon de Bournissac is in the tradition of classical Provencal civil architecture of the 18th century, characterised by a well-ordered facade with evenly-spaced openings, discreet quoins and sober ornamentation that contrasts with the richness of the interiors. The building is arranged around an inner courtyard, in an L-shaped layout that was completed in the 19th century by a north wing forming a gallery - a device that enabled the reception areas, private flats and garden to be organised into a coherent, hierarchical whole. The architectural heart of the residence is the main staircase, housed in a vast rectangular stairwell. The carefully sculpted handrail with turned balusters bears witness to the skills of Provencal craftsmen of the period. The flats on the first floor still have their French-style ceilings, with exposed joists, sometimes painted or sculpted, giving rhythm to the volumes in a building tradition rooted in the genius of southern construction. However, the hotel's originality lies above all in its nineteenth-century interior decorations: finely moulded gypseries (plaster stucco) decorating the mantelpieces and door tops, and above all the panoramic wallpapers from the Zuber factory, laid in continuous strips on the walls of the reception rooms. These panoramic wallpapers, printed using the engraved woodblock technique with superimposed colours, are considered works of art in their own right and today constitute one of the best-preserved collections of this type in the Provence region.
Related Figures
François Senchon — avocat au Parlement de Provence, commanditaire et bâtisseur de l'hôtel dans la première moitié du XVIIIe siècleJean Zuber — fondateur de la manufacture Zuber de Rixheim, éditeur des «Vues de l'Hindoustan» en 1807, dont une série orne le salon de l'hôtelLa famille de Bournissac — héritiers ou successeurs du nom associés à l'hôtel, ayant vraisemblablement conduit les agrandissements et embellissements du XIXe siècle
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Hôtel Senchon de Bournissac located?
Hôtel Senchon de Bournissac is located in Noves, Bouches-du-Rhône department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, France.
When was Hôtel Senchon de Bournissac built?
Hôtel Senchon de Bournissac dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Hôtel Senchon de Bournissac open to visitors?
Hôtel Senchon de Bournissac is currently closed to visitors.