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Origin and history

The Hôtel d'Avelin is a neoclassical mansion located at 22 rue Saint-Jacques in Lille, in the Nord department. Commanded in 1775 by François Augustin Anne Hubert Colette, Marquis d'Hangouart and last Earl d'Avelin, it was designed by architect Michel-Joseph Lequeux, then 24 years old. Inspired by the Saint-Florentin hotel in Paris, it becomes the first building of this style in Lille, replacing an old hotel demolished for the occasion. Its sober facade, marked by doric columns and a central balcony, reflects the elegance of the eighteenth century.

Confiscated during the Revolution as a national good, the hotel changed hands several times in the 19th century. It housed Louis XVIII one night in 1815, when he fled to Ghent, while he was owned by the mayor of Lille, Louis Marie Joseph de Brigode. In 1849, he became the seat of the Cercle du Nord, a bourgeois club with 1,100 members, before being bought by the City in 1887 to install the rectorate of the Lille academy, a function which he retained until 2011.

Damaged by a bombardment in 1917, the hotel was classified as a historic monument in 1944 for its facades, roofs and monumental entrance. After its sale in 2014 to the Sofim promoter, it was renovated from 2020 to be transformed into private apartments and reception spaces. The project, supervised by the architect François Bisman Heritage, preserves its honorary salon and garden, framed by two pentagonal wings added in 1925.

The interior, with an area of 900 m2, is distinguished by its honorary staircase and neoclassical decorations. The court of honour, accessible by a doric column gate, overlooks a large garden at the back. The left wing, marked by a long balcony, and the rear façade, remodeled in the 20th century, testify to the successive adaptations of the building to its varied uses, from aristocratic residence to public institution.

Today, the Hotel d'Avelin illustrates both the architectural heritage of Lille and the urban changes, from a symbol of power (nobility, town hall, education) to a private place of life. Its history reflects the political and social upheavals of France, from the Ancien Régime to contemporaneity.

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