Hôtel particulier
An hôtel particulier (French: [otɛl paʁtikylje])[1] is a townhouse of a grand sort, comparable to the British townhouse. Whereas an ordinary maison (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a street, an hôtel particulier was often free-standing and, by the 18th century, would always be located entre cour et jardin – between the cour d'honneur (an entrance court) and the garden behind.[2] There are hôtels particuliers in many large cities in France.
EtymologyEdit
The word hôtel represents the Old French "hostel" from the Latin hospitālis "pertaining to guests", from hospes, a stranger, thus a guest.[3] The adjective particulier means "personal" or "private".
The English word hotel developed a more specific meaning as a commercial building accommodating travellers; modern French also uses hôtel in this sense. For example, the Hôtel de Crillon on the Place de la Concorde was built as an hôtel particulier and is today a public hotel.
In French, an hôtel de ville or mairie is a town hall and not a hotel. Other official bodies might give their name to the structure in which they maintained a seat: aside from Paris, several other French cities have an Hôtel de Cluny, maintained by the abbey of Cluny. The Hôtel de Sens was built as the Paris residence of the archbishop of Sens.
Hôtel-Dieu ("hostel of God") is the old name given to the principal hospital in French towns, such as the Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune. The Hôtel des Invalides in Paris retains its early sense of a hospital for war wounded.
ExamplesEdit
In Aix-en-Provence:
In Beaucaire
In Blois:
In Paris:
- Hôtel de Soubise
- Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild
- Hôtel Lambert
- Hôtel Matignon
- Hôtel de Sens
- Hôtel de Rambouillet
- Hôtel Biron
- Hôtel d'Evreux
- Hôtel de Cluny
- Hôtel Carnavalet
- Hôtel de Salm
- Hôtel Grimod de La Reynière
- Hôtel Jacquemart-André
- Hôtel de Marigny
- Hôtel de Lauzun
- Hôtel de Beauvais
- Hôtel de Boisgelin
In Rennes:
In Toulouse:
In Vesoul:
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Monographs have been published on some outstanding Parisian hôtels particuliers.
- The classic photographic survey, now a rare book found only in large art libraries, is the series Les Vieux Hotels de Paris by J. Vacquer, published in the teens and twenties of the 20th century, which takes Paris quarter by quarter and which illustrates many hôtels particuliers that were demolished during the 20th century.
- Blanc, Olivier, Hôtels particuliers de Paris (1998)
- Caylux, Odile et al. Les Hôtels particuliers d'Arles (2000)
- Coquery, Natacha, L’hôtel aristocratique. Le marché du luxe à Paris au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 1998
- Courtin, Nicolas, L'Art d'habiter à Paris au XVIIe siècle : L'ameublement des hôtels particuliers, Paris, Faton, 2011
- Cros, Philippe,Hôtels particuliers de France (2001)
- Gady, Alexandre, Les Hôtels particuliers de Paris, du Moyen-Âge à la Belle époque, Paris, Parigramme, 2007
- Naudin, Jean-Baptiste et al., Hôtels particuliers de Paris: Visite privée (1999).
- Papillault, Remi Les hôtels particuliers du XVIe siècle à Toulouse (Serie Memoires des pays d'Oc)
External linksEdit
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hôtels particuliers. |
- Les Vieux Hotels de Paris, Le Faubourg Saint-Germain Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Digital Library.
- Les Vieux Hotels de Paris, Le Faubourg Saint-Honoré Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Digital Library.
- Les Vieux Hotels de Paris, Le Ministère de la Marine Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Digital Library.
- Les Vieux Hotels de Paris, Le Quartier Saint-Paul Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Digital Library.
- Les Vieux Hotels de Paris, Le Temple et le Marais Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Digital Library.