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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Hotel de Marcellange, located at 26 rue Cardinal-de-Polignac in the city of Puy-en-Velay (High-Loire), is an emblematic building of the 16th and 17th centuries. This monument is distinguished by two remarkable doors: a 16th-century street door, and an interior door on 17th-century courtyard, both inscribed in historical monuments (1934 and 1949). The 17th century door features serrated pilasters, a classic triglyphic entanglement, and a perfectly preserved Louis XIV carpentry. The staircase, typical of the time, is supported by a split wall decorated with committed doric columns.

The jellyfish carved on the gate could evoke the tensions that preceded the Besson affair (or Chamblas affair), a notable fact of the 19th century: the assassination of Louis-Marie Vilhardin de Marcellange in 1840 at Chamblas castle. The hotel is also known locally for having been the scene of the murder of Marcellange by his servant, although the sources do not specify whether this event took place in this building or elsewhere. Inside, woodwork, haze, and a Louis XVI fireplace complete this architectural heritage.

The building illustrates the evolution of styles between Renaissance and classicism, while embodying the tragedies of the local aristocracy in the 19th century. Its vaulted cellar and its door windows (east side) recall the constructive techniques of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Today, the Marcellange hotel remains a testimony of the social dissension and architectural fascists of the Haute-Loire, between the late Middle Ages and the modern era.

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