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Origin and history

The Hotel de Landes de Saint-Palais, located in Pézenas, is a building built between the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Its architecture reflects an adaptation to the urban transformations of the time, including the creation of the Quay promenade and the disappearance of the medieval courtine, replaced by a second fortified enclosure. The building connects earlier buildings on the rue de la Foire with new bodies of houses built on the edge of this walk. The staircase, a central element, is designed as a return degree with resting bearings, integrated into a rectangular cage. The intermediate flights rest on crawling arches, while the upper bearings open onto the courtyard with low arches.

The main façade, modified in the 18th century, preserves 17th century elements such as a cornice adorned with mascarons-gargoyles and a wrought iron guardrail dating back to the second half of the 17th century. The latter, made up of stamped balusters and plant motifs, bears witness to the refinement of the era. The apartments could have been decorated with gypseries around 1770 by Jean-François d'Hondrat, one of the hotel's owners. The building was also marked by a major historical event: on the night of July 21-22, 1632, the Duke of Montmorency arrested Particelle, Sieur d'Hemery, commissary of the king and comptroller general of finance, on the eve of the Languedoc revolt.

The history of the hotel is closely linked to Abel de Landes de Saint-Palais, Baron de Roquessels and captain of the guards of Henri II de Montmorency. Between 1627 and 1632 he acquired several medieval houses between Rue de la Foire and Rue du Quay, which he had remodeled to form a single building. The works, begun in 1627, transformed a medieval residence with a "all-droyct degree" and "turn-shaped cabinets" into a unified hotel. When he died in 1657, at the age of 98, the hotel, mentioned as a single building in 1688, was attributed to his initiative. Some elements, such as the stone staircase and the loggia facade with balusters, have been protected since 1944 as Historical Monuments.

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