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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Dubarry Hotel, or Jean du Barry Hotel, is a mansion located in Place Saint-Sernin in Toulouse, opposite the basilica of the same name. Built in the 18th century by Jean-Baptiste Dubarry, it embodies the opulence of the Ancien Régime thanks to its luxurious decorations: tapestries of Gobelins, mirrors, porcelains of Sèvres, marbles and paintings. The hotel, partially classified in 1984, is now part of the Lycée Saint-Sernin, after having been a house of religious education in the nineteenth century.

The history of the hotel is related to John of Barry, who was published in 1777 after being disgracified by the court of Louis XV. Funded by royal annuities, the building competed with Versailles by its splendor: gardens decorated with artificial caves, statues, and even a bear keeping the entrance to a cave. After the Revolution, Jean du Barry was guillotined in 1794, and his furniture, sold as a national good, took seven days to inventory. The Benedictines bought the hotel in 1817, setting up a school for girls, before it became a high school in 1884.

The interior decor, described as sumptuous by witnesses of the time as Mrs. Cradock in 1785, included silk hangings, velvet of Utrecht, and antique bronzes. The garden, about one arpent, was decorated with factories (windmills, cottages, Rousseau tomb) and exotic lead or stone animals. Despite restorations in 1933, the hotel lost much of its original splendour, retaining only its façade, a wrought iron ramp, and some painted decorations attributed to Touloussain François-César Derôme.

Ranked a historic monument in 1984 for its facades, its honorary staircase and several interior rooms, the Dubarry Hotel remains property of the commune of Toulouse. Renovation projects were mentioned, in particular to make it an extension of the Saint-Raymond Museum, but the lack of funding and the opposition of the educational community of the Lycée Saint-Sernin, organized within the AHDUB (Association of Friends of the Hotel du Barry), delayed these initiatives. Today, the building awaits a restoration that would preserve its heritage while integrating into Toulouse's cultural life.

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