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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Pillet-Will hotel is a neo-Louis XV mansion built in 1887 for Count Frédéric Pillet-Will, regent of the Banque de France. Located at 31 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, it replaces the former Marbeuf hotel, built in 1718 by Pierre Cailleteau (known as Laassurance) for Louis Blouin, a room valet of Louis XIV. In the 18th century, Jacques-Guillaume Legrand and Jacques Molinos remodelled it, adding a polychrome decoration inspired by antiquity. The Marbeuf hotel will be home to notable figures such as Joseph Bonaparte, Cambacérès, or Caroline Murat, and was the framework for the signing of the Concordat of 1801 between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII.

The Pillet-Will hotel incorporated architectural elements of re-use, such as the vantals of the portal (from the Vicq hotel destroyed in 1883), the woodwork of the Gontaut-Saint-Blancart hotel, and the stone vases of Bagatelle. Frédéric Pillet-Will formed a rich collection of art, including paintings by Fragonard and Boucher. In 1965, the Japanese embassy acquired the building, partially destroyed it in 1967 for modern reconstruction, retaining only the facade on the street. Nicolas Pineau's woodwork from the Varengeville hotel was then transferred to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The monumental door to the hotel, dating from the 18th century, was classified as historical monuments by decree of 7 November 1927. Today, the site is home to the Japanese ambassador's residence, with curtain wall facades designed by Jean Prouvé and furniture by Charlotte Perriand. This place illustrates the architectural and diplomatic transformations of Paris from the 18th to the 20th century.

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