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Origin and history

The Beaune-Semblançay hotel, located in the Old Towers, is one of the few testimonies of Renaissance architecture in the city. Built between the 15th and 16th centuries, it was commanded by Jacques de Beaune, Baron de Semblançay and Superintendent of Finance under Francis I. The building, classified as a historical monument in 1941 and 1947, is distinguished by its galleries, chapel and facades adorned with pilasters and friezes, although partially destroyed during the 1940 bombings.

The hotel was built in several non-linear phases. As early as 1468, a first house was attested for Jean de Beaune, inherited by his son James in 1486. The latter enlarged the whole around 1506 with a new home, and in 1517 joined the hotel of Dunois, offered by Louise de Savoie. Between 1518 and 1525, Jacques de Beaune unified the buildings by adding a north gallery, a west pavilion and a chapel overlooking a south gallery, giving the hotel its "U" shape.

The history of the hotel is marked by successive morcellations and reconstructions. After the execution of Jacques de Beaune in 1525 and the seizure of his property, the hotel was acquired by relatives before being bought piece by piece by the Jesuits between 1634 and 1676. They set up a college and built a church, destroyed in 1940. Expelled in 1762, the Jesuits gave way to the Oratorians, then the hotel became a private property in the nineteenth century, undergoing new divisions and mutilation.

The Second World War marked a tragic turning point. In June 1940, a fire ravaged the north of Tours, destroying much of the hotel. The ruins, unobstructed during the clearings, reveal the remains still visible today: the south facade of the north gallery (1518), a gallery with ionic columns supporting the chapel, and decorative elements such as diamond pilasters from the Ardennes. These remains, isolated after the destruction of the west wing and its Renaissance staircase, are now protected.

The hotel of Beaune-Semblançay thus illustrates the vicissitudes of a major architectural heritage, sometimes fragmented, reconstructed or destroyed, but whose remains still recall the fascist of the Tourangelle Renaissance and the key role of its sponsor, Jacques de Beaune, central figure of royal finance under Francis I.

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