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Origin and history

The hotel of Masseran, located at 11 rue Masseran in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, was built in 1787 by architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart for Carlo Sebastiano Ferrero Fieschi, Prince Masserano. The latter, a member of the Genoese house of Fieschi and cousin of Louis XVI, commanded this building at the end of the king's reign. Brongniart, residing nearby, personally supervised the construction site, integrating the hotel into an architectural complex that he developed around the Invalides.

The hotel changed hands several times: acquired in 1836 by banker Louis François-Xavier De Clercq, he then passed to his daughter, Countess de Boisgelin, and then to his son-in-law, Count Karl de Beaumont. Their son, Étienne de Beaumont (1883-1956), an arbiter of Parisian elegance, organized legendary festivals, such as the "Louis XIV" Ball in 1939, and welcomed artists such as Marie Laurencin and Jo Davidson. The hotel became an emblematic place of Parisian social and cultural life.

In 1946, the hotel and its garden were classified as historical monuments. After the death of Stephen de Beaumont, it was purchased by Baron Élie de Rothschild, who installed 18th-century woodwork from the Hotel de la Comtesse de Parabère. In the 1970s, the hotel became the Parisian residence of Ivorian President Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Since 2008, part of its exceptional furniture was sold to finance its restoration, and it was put on sale in 2023 for 150 million euros.

The hotel's architecture, with an area of 3,000 m2 with a park of 1,590 m2, is distinguished by its facade on a garden rhythmic with Corinthian pilasters. Its Louis XVI salon, long attributed to Brongniart, and its historic woodwork make it a rare testimony of the aristocratic art of living of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Graved by Krafft, he embodies the architectural and worldly heritage of Paris.

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