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Origin and history

The Rohan Hotel, also known as the Soubise Hospice, is an emblematic building of early 17th century architecture, located in Soubise, Charente-Maritime. Built under the reign of Louis XIII, it illustrates the classical style of the era, with a facade adorned with carved skylights, a triangular frontal portal and typical decorative elements such as fruit garlands and military attributes. This rectangular building, surmounted by a roof of canal tiles, also preserves interior chimneys with cariatides, witness to its original fascist.

The history of this monument is related to Catherine de Parthenay, the last heiress of the Parthenays, who laired at the beginning of the seventeenth century after bringing the seigneury of Soubise in dowry to her husband, René II de Rohan. Huguenote engaged, she and her son Benjamin de Rohan played a role during the siege of La Rochelle (1627–28). In 1690, Louis XIV acquired the hotel to make it a hospice entrusted to the sisters of Saint Vincent de Paul in 1696. After the Revolution, the building became a public school for 180 years, then city hall from 1982.

Ranked a historic monument in 1928, the Rohan Hotel retains protected elements such as its main façade, its fireplaces on the ground floor and its street door, surrounded by ancient fence walls. Its central stone staircase, carved pediments and acroteries recall its seigneurial past. Today owned by the commune, it embodies both the Protestant heritage of the Rohan, the French classical architecture and the functional changes of historical monuments.

The architectural sources highlight the quality of the exterior sculptures, including the pediments of the skylights and the ionic pilasters (only capitals remain). Inside, the chimney coats decorated with rinceaux and cartridges, as well as the cariatides, show a refined decor. The front door, in the middle of the hanger and surmounted by a hammered shield, recalls the revolutionary upheavals. The site, located 2 rue du 18 juin in Soubise, remains a major heritage landmark of New Aquitaine.

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