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Origin and history

The Hotel de Grave, located in Pézenas in the Hérault, is a historical monument whose early construction dates back to the third quarter of the 15th century, as attested by the coat of arms painted on the ceiling of its main hall. These coats of arms, identified by Jacques Peyron, make it possible to assign the building to Jean de Calabria, the eldest son of King René and d'Isabelle, Duke of Lorraine in 1466 and Count of Pézenas from 1466 to 1471. The hotel is distinguished by its Gothic door, adorned with a depressed arch with glittering mouldings and with cloves carved of foliage and an animal (Lion?), as well as a screw staircase housed in a truncated polygonal tower. These elements, typical of late medieval civil architecture, are the only recognizable vestiges of the original party, since the post-17th century changes altered the original structure.

The Gothic gate, classified as a Historical Monument by decree of 9 September 1933, opens directly on the street and is surmounted by a gable in a braid finished with a pinacle. The tower, which is partly a hors-oeuvre, was originally higher, as evidenced by the square bays still visible. Inside, the room on the first floor retains an exceptional painted ceiling, composed of twenty-five panels decorated with coats of arms and figures, a direct link with Jean de Calabria. Although local tradition has long associated the hotel with the birth of Troubadour Bertrand de Pézars (active between 1348 and 1384), this hypothesis is now considered unfounded.

The documented history of the hotel does not begin until the second half of the 17th century, when the building belongs to Jean-Louis de Graves, who gives it its present name. Subsequent transformations erased much of its original organization, with the exception of the decorative and structural elements of the 15th century. The absence of written sources prior to this period limits the precise knowledge of its initial use, although its architectural style suggests an aristocratic residential function, linked to the Comtal Court of Pézenas. Today, the hotel is located 9 rue du Château, in a historical area marked by the passage of the Dukes of Anjou and Lorraine.

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