Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Hotel de la Lune, located in Orthez in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, is a rectangular building built between the 13th and 14th centuries. Its initial architecture was modified in the 15th or 16th centuries by the addition of a polygonal staircase turret and the piercing of sill bays. These transformations reflect the evolution of the residential and defensive needs of the period, with late Gothic elements such as mouldings falling back on carved leave.

The ground floor, designed as a storage space without direct communication with the floors, opened with two large arched doors. This provision suggests a mixed use, both commercial and residential, typical of medieval urban houses. The screw turret, added later, facilitated access to the upper floors, illuminated by sill windows, characteristic of the civil architecture of the late Middle Ages.

Ranked a Historic Monument in 2007, the building includes in its protection the entire hotel and its plate plot. Its location at 15 rue de l'Horloge, in an area probably frequented in the Middle Ages, reinforces its heritage interest. Available sources, such as the Mérimée and Monumentum base, confirm its importance as a witness to medieval urban habitat in New Aquitaine.

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