Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Hotel de Mayenne, located at 21 rue Saint-Antoine in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, occupies the location of a former medieval hotel, the "Hôtel du Petit-Musc", acquired by Charles VI in 1378 and then transferred to his brother Louis d'Orléans. This site, rebuilt in the 16th century by the Marquis de Boisy (Claude Gouffier), became in 1605 the property of Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne, whose son Henri undertook important transformations between 1613 and 1617, probably under the direction of architect Jean Androuet du Cerceau. The hotel then adopts a typical H-shaped plan of "French-style" hotels, with street pavilions connected by a terrace and facades adorned with bosses and superimposed orders.

In the 17th century, the hotel was embellished by wrought iron balconies with the cross of Lorraine, symbols of the Mayenne family. In 1707-1709, architect Germain Boffrand modernized the ensemble for the Count of Vaudémont, adding interior and exterior decorative elements. In 1759, the hotel changed its vocation to the Lefèvre d'Ormesson family in the 19th century: it was transformed into a boarding house (1812) and then into a school by the brothers of the Christian schools (1870), and suffered major alterations, such as the sale of its woodwork in 1881 or the addition of a pastiche building in 1881, which was finally demolished during a controversial restoration between 2010 and 2012.

The architecture of the Hotel de Mayenne combines medieval influences (trumped tower of the seventeenth century) and classic (right-hand staircase with brick vaults, stone facades and brick reminiscent of the Place des Vosges). Despite the disappearance of most of Boffrand's interior woodwork, remarkable elements such as the "green lounge" or the large staircase of 1609, adorned with a carved tympanum depicting Pallas remain. The facades, roofs, vestibule and stairway have been classified as historical monuments since 1974. Today, the hotel houses the school group Francs Bourgeois-La Salle, while maintaining traces of its past prestige.

The site has been the subject of recent controversy, notably during the destruction in 2012 of the 19th century building, which has been considered unworthy by purists but integrated into the landscape for more than a century. These debates illustrate the tensions between preserving the original heritage and adapting to contemporary uses, a recurring challenge for Parisian historical monuments.

Future

Today the hotel is occupied by the school group of Francs Bourgeois-Lasalle which hosts a primary school, a college and a general and technological high school.

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