Hotel de Lassay

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Garden facade of the Hôtels de Lassay

The Hôtel de Lassay , also known as the Palais de la Présidence , is a Hôtel particulier in the 7th arrondissement of Paris and the residence of the President of the French National Assembly . It stands right next to the Palais Bourbon , where the National Assembly meets, and has a direct connection to it through a gallery and a ballroom.

Built in the first quarter of the 18th century by Léon de Madaillant de Lesparre, Marquis de Lassay, it was heavily redesigned after 1786 by the Prince of Condé . Further renovations followed at the end of the 18th century for use as a school. After the French state had acquired the building in 1834, it had its interior completely redesigned in the 1840s to make it usable for the President of the National Assembly. The Hôtel is open to visitors only for groups that have been invited by a Member, and every year on European Heritage Day , it is open to visitors.

history

In 1719 Léon de Madaillant de Lesparre, Marquis de Lassay, had acquired land on the left bank of the Seine in an area that was then called Pré-du-clercs . At that time, this area, which later became the Faubourg Saint-Germain and which today makes up the city center of Paris, was still almost undeveloped and a tranquil, rural idyll at the gates of the French capital. Lassay, close confidante and lover of the widowed Duchess , Louise Françoise de Bourbon , Princess of Condé, persuaded her to buy land there too in order to build a country palace based on the model of the Grand Trianon . In 1720 the Duchess ceded part of her acquired property to her friend Lassay for “his advice and faithful service”, so that he too could build a residence there.

Client of the hotel: Léon de Madaillan de Lesparre

From 1722 the Palais Bourbon and the Hôtel de Lassay were built at the same time between the Rue de l'Université and the banks of the Seine . The initial plans came from the Italian architect Carlo Giardini , who died in the year construction began. He was replaced by Pierre Cailleteau , known as Lassurance, but he too died just two years later, so that Jean Aubert succeeded him. For a long time the building was considered the work of Jacques Gabriel , but the latter only had an advisory role. The construction work came to an end in 1728, and Léon de Madaillant de Lesparre moved into his new domicile in 1729. At that time, around three acres of land belonged to the property, which was designed as a French garden with a view of the Seine on its north side. One of chestnut -lined avenue led axially from the south to the main entrance of the building. On both sides, hidden behind the double rows of trees, were farm buildings such as kitchens, pantries, a laundry room , horse stables, a furniture store, coach houses and servants' quarters. A small flower garden east of the house later had to give way to a narrow extension. The hotel was one of the first buildings in France to use rococo elements , but the building was much more modest than the neighboring Palais Bourbon in terms of both architectural decoration and dimensions.

Ground floor plan of the Hôtels de Lassay before the renovations under the Prince of Condé

When the Marquis died in 1750, his widow Reine inherited the property. She did not live in the hotel herself and gave it to her husband's great-nephew, Louis-Léon de Brancas , Count of Lauraguais . He sold the property in 1768 to Louis V. Joseph de Bourbon, prince de Condé, who also owned the neighboring palace. Condé had the interior of the building heavily redesigned according to plans by Antoine-Michel Le Carpentier . In 1770, for example, he had Honoré Guibert decorate the vestibule with military motifs to commemorate his successes in the Seven Years' War , and remove partition walls between the small antichambres in the eastern part of the building in order to set up a large dining room there in 1772. He also arranged for the large gallery in the western part of the building to be redesigned. This took up the entire depth of the building and was used by Léon de Madaillant de Lesparre as an exhibition space for his extensive collection of paintings. The numerous exhibits from the Flemish , Italian and Spanish schools included works by Peter Paul Rubens , Pieter Bruegel and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo . Louis-Joseph had this gallery furnished in honor of his ancestor, the Great Condé ( French le Grand Condé ), with four large battle paintings by Philippe Casanova and Jean Baptiste Le Paon . Allegorical statues and figures from Greek mythology completed the iconographic program of the room. Although Condé emigrated on July 18, 1789 , he still had work carried out on the building in 1790. In 1791 it shared the same fate as the Palais Bourbon: It was confiscated and declared national property, which - like the neighboring palace - housed the Ecole centrale des travaux publics , later the polytechnic school , from 1794 . This use made it necessary to renovate the interior.

After his return to France in 1814, the Prince of Condé received the two buildings back. In contrast to the Palais Bourbon, which he rented to the French state from 1814, he used the Hôtel de Lassay himself for residential purposes. From 1832 it was also rented to the state so that the President of the Chamber of Deputies could live there. It was a continuation of an old tradition, because as early as 1804 the President of the Corps legislatif had been granted the right to live in the Hôtel de Lassay. The property was inherited in 1830 by the still underage Henri d'Orléans , Duke of Aumale . In 1834 his guardianship council finally sold it to the French state, who had further renovations carried out there from 1846 onwards according to plans by the architect Jules de Joly . For example, the previously one-story building was raised by one floor and connected to the Palais Bourbon by a ballroom in the east. The inauguration of the hall , which replaced a simply wooden gallery that had existed since 1799 or 1809, took place in 1848 by Armand Marrast . Under President Charles de Morny , the gallery of the tapestry was placed in front of the ballroom on the southern long side in 1860 and the last structural change was made to the building. With the extension, which was inaugurated during a pompous ball in May 1861, Morny created space for his collection of around 50 works. This was sold after his death, so that today tapestries from the tapestry manufactory and from Beauvais , to which he owes his name, hang in this room .

description

Exterior

Entrance facade

The Hôtel de Lassay is a single, elongated structure with a floor plan of 25 × 11  toises (about 48.7 × 21.5 meters). An axially laid out, approximately 84-meter-long avenue runs from the south towards the building and ends in a simple forecourt measuring approximately 29.5 × 50 meters. The two floors of the house are divided into 13 axes by windows and are closed off by a flat hipped roof. In the east and west, the two corner projections, each with two axes, are joined by narrow, single-axis extensions. In the three-axis center risalit is the portal to which an eight-step flight of stairs leads up. It comes from renovations under Jules de July and replaced a semi-oval predecessor in the 19th century. An attic with a baluster parapet decorated with vases and putti forms the upper end of the upper floor, which houses the private living quarters of the President of the National Assembly and the offices of his staff. All windows have an upper end as Rocaille - ornament and make the Hôtel de Lassay one of the earliest buildings of this style in France.

To the south in front of the Tapestry Gallery is a small garden called Jardin des Quatres Colonnes , which, thanks to its strictly symmetrical design, is the only part of the garden that is reminiscent of the property's former baroque gardens. The almost square garden with an edge length of around 42 meters has a lawn area of ​​around 18.5 × 18.5 meters in its center, which is divided into quarters by two paths that cross in the center of the garden. The crossing is marked by a small roundabout . In the corners of the garden there are beds that are planted with trees and shrubs.

Interior decoration

The great salon

From the former, splendid rococo interior by Jules Degoullons and Mathieu Le Goupie , almost nothing is original. Much was lost through the changes under Louis-Joseph de Bourbon and the renovations in the 19th century. Almost all of the paintings visible today are by François-Joseph Heim , who was entrusted with the painting of the interior between 1846 and 1848.

The large vestibule in the style of the Regency , the design of which dates back to 1770, welcomes visitors . Between pilasters with Corinthian capitals there are reliefs of weapons, armor and other military motifs. Behind the vestibule on the garden side is the large salon ( French Grand Salon ), which - like many other rooms in the hotel - has gilded boiseries . Above the doors there are the additional ports Le concert , Le concert champêtre , La lecture and La danse and an allegory of peace. The furniture in the room comes from the Grohé brothers , the fireplace was made by Seguin. The rest of the furnishings also date to the 19th century. A large flight of stairs leads from this room into the garden.

To the right of the vestibule is the dining room, which was created in the 1770s by merging two smaller rooms. His ceiling painting is by Deruelle. From the dining room, the visitor arrives at the Salon des Elements ( French Salon des Elements ), which got its name from the four over-portals painted by François-Joseph Heim, which represent earth, fire, water and air. Initially set up as a bedroom, this room was used as a billiard room during the restoration . As in the Great Salon , the furniture and fireplace are from the Grohés and Seguin. The room is connected to the neighboring Cabinet of Aufbruch ( French Cabinet du Départ ) via a door . The room, which has always been used as a study, bears this name because the President traditionally sets off from there to the meetings of the National Assembly. On one wall there is a tapestry from the end of the 18th century with the motif of the School of Athens after the famous painting by Raphael . The precious carpet on the floor from the time of Louis XIV. Came from a 93 pieces comprehensive series, originally for the Grand Gallery of the Louvre were made.

From the Cabinet of Aufbruch one arrives at the large ballroom with its gilded pilasters, which connects the building with the Palais Bourbon. It has five large arched windows on the northern long side facing the garden, which correspond to a corresponding number of arched openings on the southern long side. They form the connection to the Tapisserie Gallery , which was added in 1860 and is illuminated by five skylights .

To the west of the large salon is the Salon der Jahreszeiten ( French Salons des Saisons ), the name of which comes from the over-portals designed by Heim and depicting the four seasons. The entire furnishing of the room comes from the 19th century. Through this room the visitor arrives at the neighboring Salon der Spiele ( French Salon des Jeux ), which occupies the northern part of the former gallery. In this case, too, the name is derived from the over-portals in the room, which show five different children's games. Every Tuesday the Presidential Conference gathers in this salon to set the agenda of the National Assembly for the current and the next two weeks.

literature

  • Claude Frégnac: Belle demeures de Paris . Hachette, Paris 1977, ISBN 2-01-003868-1 , pp. 198-206.
  • Cornelius Gurlitt : History of the Baroque Style, Rococo and Classicism in Belgium, Holland, France, England . Ebner & Seubert, Stuttgart 1888, pp. 222-223.
  • Paulin Paris: Le Marquis de Lassay et l'Hôtel Lassay . Techener, Paris 1848 ( online ).
  • Jean-Aymar Piganiol de La Force: Description de Paris, de Versailles, de Marly, de Meudon, de Saint-Cloud, de Fontainebleau ... Volume 7. Théodore Legras, Paris 1742, pp. 168–170 ( online ).
  • Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale (Ed.): L'Hôtel de Lassay. De la Régence à nos jours . Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale, Paris 2007 ( PDF ; 1.6 MB).
  • Reginald Blomfield : A History of French Architecture. From the Death of Mazarin till the Death of Louis XV, 1661-1774 . Volume 2, 2nd edition. Bell and sons, London 1921, p. 163.

Web links

Commons : Hôtel de Lassay  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ C. Gurlitt: History of the Baroque Style, Rococo and Classicism in Belgium, Holland, France, England , p. 222.
  2. ↑ C. Frégnac: Belle demeures de Paris , p. 202. Many publications still give the outdated information that the builder was Léon's father Armand de Madaillant de Lesparre. This results from the fact that in older historiography father and son were often mixed up into one person.
  3. ↑ Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale: L'Hôtel de Lassay , p. 3.
  4. ↑ a b c Brief history of the hotel on the website of the French National Assembly , accessed on August 12, 2013.
  5. ↑ Pierre Biais: You feu à l'incendie . Publibook, 2009, ISBN 2748347951 , p. 310 ( online ).
  6. ↑ a b History of the Palais' Bourbon and the Hôtels de Lassay , accessed on August 12, 2013.
  7. ^ A b c Andrew Ayers: The Architecture of Paris. An Architectural Guide . Axel Menges, Stuttgart [a. a.] 2004, ISBN 3-930698-96-X , p. 139 ( online .)
  8. ↑ P. Paris: Le Marquis de Lassay et l'Hôtel Lassay , p. 18.
  9. ^ Adolphe Berty: Topographie historique du vieux Paris. Faubourg Saint-Germain region . Imprimérie Impériale, Paris 1882, p. 225 ( online ).
  10. ^ Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale: L'Hôtel de Lassay , p. 11.
  11. ↑ C. Frégnac: Belle demeures de Paris , S. 204th
  12. ↑ Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale: L'Hôtel de Lassay , pp. 16-17.
  13. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Information on the interior of the hotel , accessed on August 12, 2013.
  14. ↑ P. Paris: Le Marquis de Lassay et l'Hôtel Lassay , p. 17.
  15. ↑ a b c Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale: L'Hôtel de Lassay , p. 13.
  16. ↑ Pierre Biais: You feu à l'incendie . Publibook, 2009, ISBN 2748347951 , p. 311 ( online ).
  17. ^ Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale: L'Hôtel de Lassay , p. 15.
  18. ↑ Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale: L'Hôtel de Lassay , p. 1.
  19. ↑ Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale: L'Hôtel de Lassay , p. 12.
  20. ↑ J.-A. Piganiol de La Force: Description de Paris, de Versailles, de Marly, de Meudon, de Saint-Cloud, de Fontainebleau ... , p. 169.
  21. ↑ a b c d Information according to the cadastral map of the property available online.
  22. ↑ a b Information on the Jardins des Quatres Colonnes for visitors to the Hôtels de Lassay (PDF; 3.1 MB)
  23. ↑ Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale: L'Hôtel de Lassay , p. 16.

Coordinates: 48 ° 51 ′ 44 ″  N , 2 ° 19 ′ 2 ″  E