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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Tambour Hotel, located at 27 Magenta Boulevard in Fontainebleau, is a private hotel dating back to the 17th century. Its present name comes from the drum "placed of rolling" which crowns its main portal, a rustic door of the sixteenth century according to historian Pierre Chabat. This portal, characterized by two columns framing an arcade in the middle of a hanger and surmounted by a broken pediment, houses a central circular medallion. The building has had several names over the centuries, including Hotel de Montpensier, Hotel de La Roche-sur-Yon and Hotel de Conty, reflecting its changes of ownership and usage.

The estate extends over lands formerly attached to other prestigious hotels, such as those in Luynes and La Rochefoucauld, whose entrances led to the former St. Louis Street (now extinct). An adjacent land, once girded with ditches under Henry II to install a ball game, was given by Charles IX to the Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon. In the 18th century, the site housed the stables of the Dauphine (1746), then those of Madame, with a capacity of 108 horses divided into two buildings. In 1896, new stables were rebuilt there, marking a continuity in his equestrian vocation.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the hotel became the property of Edmond Fouret, then of his father René Fouret, director of the Hachette bookshop. The latter undertook major expansion work in 1907, integrating the site of the old house of Auguste Barbier. In the same year, an attempt to steal lead plates from the gate was thwarted by the gendarmes. After the renovations, René Fouret had the inscription "HOTEL DV TAMBOVR" engraved on a cartridge, formalizing his current name. The Tambour Gate was finally listed as a private property by order of 28 May 1926.

The hotel thus illustrates the architectural and functional evolution of private hotels in Île-de-France, moving from aristocratic residence to more utilitarian use ( stables), before becoming a protected heritage. Its portal, an emblematic element, bears witness to the artistic know-how of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, while its history reflects the social and urban changes of Fontainebleau, a city marked by the royal presence and rising bourgeoisie.

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