Hôtel
MonumentHidden Treasure
Joyau Louis XIII de Tours, cet hôtel particulier en brique et pierre offre une élégance rare en Touraine. Ses deux ailes perpendiculaires et sa tour-lanterne carrée composent un ensemble architectural d'exception inscrit aux Monuments Historiques.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
In the heart of Tours, a city of art and history whose Renaissance heritage sometimes overshadows the achievements of the Grand Siècle, this private mansion stands out with a claimed singularity: it is one of the rare - if not the only - example in Tours of Louis XIII architecture in brick and stone, a chromatic combination so characteristic of the first half of the 17th century that can be found in Paris or in the châteaux of the Loire, but which remains exceptional in the urban fabric of Tours. The building is organised around an L-shaped plan, with two perpendicular wings that meet to form a carefully composed corner. At this precise corner, the architect chose to erect a square, two-storey structure above the roof, creating a kind of lantern pavilion that structures the building's silhouette and gives it an unexpected verticality. This corner pavilion motif is typical of the architectural vocabulary of the Louis-Treiz period, found in the great noble residences of the period. A secondary wing extends to the west, delimiting a second courtyard to the south and testifying to an ambitious building programme, typical of provincial mansions that sought to reproduce, on a measured scale, the splendour of Parisian residences. The south-facing facade, adjoining a later-built mansion, gives the building an urban density that is reminiscent of the way in which the Touraine bourgeoisie of the 17th century occupied and densified the city's fabric. If you take a careful look at this heritage, you'll be able to appreciate the taste of an era of transition, between the decorative profusion of the late Renaissance and the classical rigour that would come to the fore under Louis XIV. Here, pink brick and white Touraine stone are combined with an ornamental sobriety that commands respect, and every detail - the modelling of the windows, the rhythm of the bays, the interplay of the roofs - reveals the mastery of a patron concerned to appear without ostentation.
Architecture
The architecture of this town house is a remarkable example of the Louis XIII style as it spread throughout the French provinces in the first half of the 17th century. The Louis XIII style is defined by the combination of red brick and white stone - in this case the local tufa stone - creating a sober, elegant two-tone effect, visible in the window surrounds, quoins and horizontal bands. This contrasting aesthetic, popularised by royal buildings such as the Place des Vosges in Paris (1612), is the primary signature of the building here, and its rarity in the Touraine context makes it a valuable case study. The L-shaped plan formed by the two perpendicular wings is typical of provincial hotels of the period, which organised their volumes around hierarchical interior courtyards. The most unusual feature is the square, two-storey structure that tops the roof at the intersection of the two wings: a veritable lantern pavilion, this vertical addition breaks with the relative horizontality of the whole and evokes the devices used in contemporary châteaux to mark corners and entrances. The steeply pitched roofs, covered in traditional Loire slate, contribute to the impression of verticality and give the building its distinctive silhouette. The secondary wing to the west completes the layout by creating a second courtyard to the south, organised according to the principle of progressive enclosure typical of classical private mansions. The façades, punctuated by regular spans of mullioned or transomed windows in keeping with the fashion of the day, bear witness to a quest for order that heralds classicism while retaining a freedom of composition inherited from the Renaissance.
Related Figures
Louis XIII, roi de France (1610-1643), dont le règne donna son nom au style architectural de l'édificeRichelieu, cardinal-ministre sous Louis XIII, dont la politique de centralisation favorisa l'essor des élites provinciales commanditaires de telles demeuresLes bourgeois marchands tourangeaux du XVIIe siècle, enrichis par le commerce de la soie et porteurs de l'essor architectural de la villeLes officiers royaux du Présidial de Tours, figure type du commanditaire probable d'un tel édificeLes architectes et maçons de la région Centre, dont le savoir-faire dans le travail du tuffeau et de la brique fut déterminant pour la réalisation de l'édifice
