The Hôtel de Soubise () is a city mansion ''
entre cour et jardin''. It is located at 60
Rue des Francs-Bourgeois in the
3rd arrondissement of Paris,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
.
History
The Hôtel de Soubise was built as an ''
hôtel particulier
() is the French term for a grand urban mansion, comparable to a Townhouse (Great Britain), British townhouse. Whereas an ordinary (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a ...
'' for the Prince and Princess de
Soubise on the site of a semi-fortified
manor house named the ''Grand-Chantier'' built in 1375 for ''connétable''
Olivier de Clisson, that had formerly been a property of the
Templars. The site previously contained the Hôtel de Guise, the Paris residence of the
Dukes of Guise, a cadet branch of the
House of Lorraine. It was the birthplace of the last Duke,
Francis Joseph, Duke of Guise, the son of
Élisabeth Marguerite d'Orléans, Duchess of Alençon. He died in 1675 and the Guise estate passed to
Marie de Lorraine who died at the Hôtel in 1688 having been born there in 1615.
On March 27, 1700,
François de Rohan, prince de Soubise bought the Hôtel de Clisson, lately de Guise, and asked the architect
Pierre-Alexis Delamair to remodel it completely. Works started in 1704. His wife
Anne de Rohan-Chabot, at one time mistress of
Louis XIV
LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
(their affair is thought to have funded the purchase of the building), died here in 1709.
Hercule Mériadec, Prince of Soubise (son of François) was responsible for some interior décor at the Hôtel de Soubise engaging Germain Boffrand in the process. This dates from the 1730s. Improvements were made to celebrate the marriage of Hercule Mériadec to
Marie Sophie de Courcillon, granddaughter of the
marquis de Dangeau.
It was the home of Louis XV's friend
Charles de Rohan, prince de Soubise; his daughter
Charlotte Élisabeth Godefride de Rohan, future
princesse de Condé was born here in 1737 as was the
Princess of Guéméné in 1743.
Interiors by
Germain Boffrand, created about 1735–40 and partly dismantled, are accounted among the high points of the
rococo
Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...
style in France (Kimball 1943: 178). They constituted the new apartments of the Prince on the ground floor and the Princesse on the ''
piano nobile'', both of which featured oval salons looking into the garden. These rooms have changed very little since the 18th century, including the ''Chambre du prince'', ''Salon ovale du prince'', ''Chambre d'apparat de la princesse'' and the very fine ''Salon ovale de la princesse'' with gilded carvings and mirror-glass embedded in the ''
boiserie
Panelling (or paneling in the United States) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials.
Panelling was developed in antiquity ...
'' and ceiling canvases and
overdoors by
François Boucher,
Charles-Joseph Natoire, and
Carle Van Loo.
Since a
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
ic
decree
A decree is a law, legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, monarch, royal figure, or other relevant Authority, authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislativ ...
of 1808, this residence has been the property of the State. Nowadays it hosts the
Musée des Archives Nationales and a part of the
French National Archives.
The building and forecourt also served as a filming location "stand-in" for the Elysee Palace in the 1973 film
Day of the Jackal.
Gallery
File:Salon Oval de la Princesse of the Hôtel de Soubise (Paris).jpg, The ''Salon ovale de la princesse'', by Germain Boffrand, with paintings by Charles-Joseph Natoire
File:Bound Print (France), 1727 (CH 18290967).jpg, The design of the building
File:Hôtel de Soubise - courtyard.JPG, the cour d'honneur of the Hôtel de Soubise
File:Hôtel de Soubise Germain Brice edition 1717.jpg, The Hôtel de Soubise in Germain Brice's travel guide, seventh edition, published in 1717
File:Entrée du site de Paris (hôtel de Soubise). Archives nationales (France).jpg, The entrance portal of the Hôtel de Soubise, which served as an inspiration for the design of the new entrance portal of the Hôtel de Besenval, built in 1938 by the architects ''Moreillon & Taillens''
File:Typus Religionis. Estampe, du tableau trouvé dans l’eglise, des ci-devant soi-disans-Jésuites de Billom en Auvergne, l’an 1762.png, Typus Religionis is a large allegorical painting that depicts a galleon ship as a representation of faith. It was used as evidence in a trial Jesuits during their expulsion from France.
See also
*
List of Baroque residences
*
Rue des Archives
References
Bibliography
*
Fiske Kimball
Sidney Fiske Kimball (1888 – 1955) was an American architect, architectural historian and museum director. A pioneer in the field of architectural preservation in the United States, he played a leading part in the restoration of Montice ...
, 1943. ''The Creation of the Rococo'' (
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...
).
External links
insecula.com entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soubise, Hotel
Hôtels particuliers in Paris
Le Marais
Buildings and structures in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris
House of Rohan
House of Guise
French art