Hotel Morin
The Hôtel Morin is a Hôtel particulier in the French city of Amboise in the Indre-et-Loire department . Erected at the beginning of the 16th century by the treasurer of the French King Francis I , it was used as a courthouse, administrative building and prison from the 18th century. From 1848 to 1852 it was used as soldiers' quarters before the Amboise city council moved there in 1855. Until 1970, the city palace served as the Amboise town hall . After the municipal administrative offices moved out, a museum on the city's history was set up there.
The building has been classified as a monument historique since October 8, 1880 and is therefore a listed building .
history
Pierre Morin, treasurer of the French king, began building a city palace in 1500. The plans for this came from Jacques Coqueau and Pierre Nepveu, who were also involved in the castles of Chambord and Chenonceau . The client didn't just want to build a house, he wanted to showcase the wealth of his family. She had done this as supplier to the royal households of Charlotte of Savoy and Anne de Bretagne , who both lived in Amboise Castle for a long time . When Pierre died, however, the hotel was not yet completed; it was not until his widow Françoise Provost completed its construction in 1505.
The building was later owned by François Tissart, Seigneur von Villetissart, before it belonged to a Mr. Chasteignier. It was bought by the Duke of Choiseul , whose estate Amboise had belonged to since 1764, and established the court and the treasury of his Duchy of Choiseul-Amboise and a prison there. Due to the ducal use, the building was called Palais ducal ( German Ducal Palace ) at that time . After Choiseul's death, Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre , who was inherited by his daughter Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre , Duchess of Orléans, acquired it - like the entire duchy .
In 1826 the Hôtel Morin was bought by the city of Amboise, which paid 8,500 francs for it. She used it for administrative purposes. Soldiers were housed there from 1848 to 1852. They had to guard Abd el-Kader and his entourage, who had been imprisoned in Amboise Castle since that year. From 1855 the building was the town hall ( French Hôtel de ville ) and seat of the justice of the peace , which was restored from 1891 .
After the city administration moved to a new, more modern town hall in 1970, a museum was set up in the building ( Musée de lʼHôtel de ville , German Town Hall Museum ), whose exhibition deals with the history of Amboise.
description
architecture
The current appearance of the hotel results from restoration work carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries under the architect de la Roque. The masonry of the two-storey building consists of light tuff blocks , the high hipped roof is covered with slate shingles. The architecture shows the typical characteristics of the flamboyant and the early French Renaissance : among other things, a richly decorated keel arch over the entrance, regularly arranged cross- stick windows and pinned ducars .
museum
On the ground floor, the Leonardo da Vinci room deals with the life and work of the Italian polymath who spent the last years of his life in the Manoir du Clos Lucé in Amboise. Among other things, François-Guillaume Ménageot's famous painting The Death of Leonardo da Vinci in the arms of the French King Francis I can be seen there. On the walls of the wedding room hang seven tapestries from Aubusson . They were made in the 18th century and originally came from Chanteloup Castle , which was also the property of the Duke of Choiseul. A portrait of him hangs in the Room of the Kings of France . The monumental fireplace in the wedding room is decorated with the initials and the coat of arms of Pierre Morin. Furniture from the reign of King Louis Philippe from Amboise Castle complete the furnishings of this room, the name of which goes back to the fact that it is now also used as a wedding room.
In the hallway on the first floor there are numerous paintings with portraits of the mayors of Amboise from the 19th and 20th centuries. In the hall of the city council , which is still used for meetings, you can see coat of arms paintings that were only created there during the restorations in the 19th century.
literature
- Louis-Augustin Bossebœuf: Amboise. Le château, la ville et le canton. L. Péricat, Tours 1897, pp. 394-395 ( digitized version ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Entry of the hotel in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- ↑ a b c d Museum flyer ( Memento of the original dated December 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.3 MB)
- ↑ Lucie Gaugain: Amboise, le château et la ville aux 15e – 16e s. In: Elisabeth Zadora-Rio (Ed.): Atlas Archéologique de Touraine. FERACF, Tours 2014 ( online ).
- ↑ a b c d e L.-A. Bossebœuf: Amboise. Le château, la ville et le canton. 1897, p. 395.
Coordinates: 47 ° 24 '47.9 " N , 0 ° 59' 2.4" E