Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Raymondie Hotel, also known as the Raymondie Palace, is a medieval building located in Martel, Lot (Occitanie). Built between 1280 and 1330 on the initiative of Bernard Raymond (or Raymundi), receiver general of sizes for the king of France, it illustrates 14th century civil architecture. Its irregular pentagonal plan, scalables and belfry make it a rare example of a fortified urban hotel, designed to house shops on the ground floor and residences upstairs.

The building was completed around 1330 by Pierre Stephani, Bernard Raymond's son-in-law, who added the north wing and the belfry. During the Hundred Years War (1349), Martel's consuls turned him into a defensive refuge for the inhabitants, closing the commercial arcades. It was damaged and restored after 1440 by the Stephani, who restored commercial activities on the ground floor. In the 16th century he passed to the Rollat family by marriage, then was divided and sold to local bourgeois (del Verger, Limars, Salvat) in 1531.

Having become a municipal property after the Revolution, the hotel served as a school, a justice of peace and sheltered shops. Ranked a Historic Monument in 1906, it was the object of major restoration campaigns in the 20th and 21st centuries, notably for its Renaissance arcades, its shovel windows and its scaulders. Today, it houses the City Hall and the Uxellodunum Museum, dedicated to the Gallo-Roman history of the region.

The architecture of Raymondie reveals a duality between civilian and military functions. Its 11 southern arcades and 7 western arcades, originally planned with an awning, testify to its commercial role. The south and west facades, adorned with cross and quadrilobic windows, contrast with the north and east elevations, almost blind. The inner courtyard, lined with missing wooden galleries, kept a well and a staircase with screws added to the sixteenth century.

Among the remarkable elements, two 17th century chimneys and a monumental 16th century painting, discovered during works, are classified. The furniture includes a Crucifixion classified in 1904 and a painting by Henri Rousseau (Les Oliviers à Sfax, 1902). The successive restorations (1928–1948, 1961–1967, 2012) preserved its medieval and Renaissance characteristics, while adapting the building to its contemporary uses.

External links