Maison Renaissance ou ancien hôtel de Lestrade dit aussi "hôtel de la Joubertie"
MonumentHidden Treasure
At the heart of Périgueux, this Renaissance hôtel conceals an architectural treasure unique in France: a four-newel staircase with sculpted decoration of exceptional virtuosity, a miraculous survivor of a great seigneurial residence of the 16th century.
History
Nestling in the historic fabric of Périgueux, the Renaissance house known as the Hôtel de Lestrade - or Hôtel de la Joubertie - is one of those monuments that defy time with discreet elegance. From the outside, nothing betrays the magnificence of what lies inside: a Renaissance staircase of rare sophistication, an almost miraculous vestige of a seigniorial dwelling swept away by fire in the early 19th century. Yet this architectural fragment is so rich that it alone justifies the interest of specialists in 16th-century civil architecture. What makes this monument truly unique is the design of its four-core staircase - an extremely rare arrangement in French domestic architecture of the Renaissance. Unlike the spiral staircases or central staircases that dominated the period, this arrangement of three straight flights and two rests at right-angles bears witness to an Italian influence assimilated and reinterpreted by highly skilled Périgord craftsmen. The columns forming the cores, the ornate coffered ceilings on the landings and the balustrade with its uniquely shaped rampant balusters make up a sculptural ensemble of remarkable coherence. The experience of visiting is one of intimate discovery: you enter a space that has withstood fire, the Revolution and the centuries, as if suspended in its own time. The landing on the main floor is particularly eye-catching, with its three coffers filled with mythological figures - a long-haired Venus accompanied by Eros - and hammered coats of arms whose identity has yet to be reconstructed, adding an element of mystery to the contemplation. The Périgord setting amplifies the charm of the place. Périgueux, an ancient Roman Vesunna that became a medieval episcopal city and then a consular town, retains an exceptionally dense architectural heritage, and the Hôtel de Lestrade is one of the finest examples of the noble art of living during the Renaissance. For architecture enthusiasts, photographers and travellers in search of authenticity, this listed monument offers a rendezvous with a past that is both glorious and enigmatic.
Architecture
The staircase at the Hôtel de Lestrade belongs to the rare type of Renaissance staircase with four cores, an arrangement that radically distinguishes it from medieval spiral staircases and even from the single-core staircases that dominated French civil architecture in the 16th century. It is made up of three straight flights linked by two rests forming a right-angled return, rising over two full storeys and resting laterally on a Périgord limestone shaft wall. This structure, reminiscent of contemporary spatial research in Italian architecture, gives the building a legibility and fluidity of circulation that architects of the period sought as a sign of modernity. The decorative wealth is concentrated on two elements: the cores and the ceilings. The columns making up the four cores are meticulously sculpted, their shafts and capitals incorporating a repertoire of classicist ornamentation - scrolls, oves, pearls - executed with great finesse. The coffered ceilings of the rest rooms and landings represent the pinnacle of the sculptor's art: the landing on the main floor features three figurative coffers, one of which is adorned with a long-haired Venus accompanied by Eros, mythological references characteristic of the humanist taste of the French Renaissance. The hammered coat of arms, of which only the relief remains, bears witness to the political or inheritance vicissitudes that led to its deliberate destruction. The balustrade provides interesting evidence of the stylistic evolution of the staircase over time. The first flight retains its original and rare creeping balusters, which are probably original, while the other flights have more recent double pear balusters, characteristic of a restoration or replacement that may have taken place in the 17th or 18th century. This coexistence of two generations of stone furniture is in itself a precious document for the history of Périgord decorative architecture.
Related Figures
Famille de Lestrade — noble famille périgourdine commanditaire du logis au XVIe siècleFamille de la Joubertie — second nom du monument, suggérant une transmission de propriétéCommanditaire aux initiales H et S — personnage non identifié dont le monogramme orne le palier nobleArtisans sculpteurs anonymes — tailleurs de pierre périgourdins maîtrisant le répertoire ornemental RenaissanceFrançois Ier — dont le règne (1515-1547) impulse l'italianisation de l'architecture française influençant ce type de logis
