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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Hotel de Nizas, located in Pézenas in the Hérault, is an emblematic monument built around 1500, representing a hospicium typical of the medieval city. Its architecture combines late Gothic elements, such as the decorative mâchicoulis of the polygonal staircase tower, and bold structural innovations for the time. The inner courtyard, accessible by an alley under the building body, reveals a straight staircase with a full ramp leading to a gallery on the first floor, while a square turret crowned with open mâchicoulis serves the upper floors. The street façade, redesigned in the 17th and 19th centuries, contrasts with the richness of the original elements preserved in the courtyard.

The structure of the hotel rests on low arches stretched between the corners of the courtyard, supporting the galleries and illustrating a remarkable technical mastery. A central column, itself placed on the margin of a well, supports the tower's band plant, creating a striking visual effect. The cross bays and the half-windows illuminating the main hall show attention to light and traffic in the building. Although not documented before 1688, the hotel is associated with local bourgeois and noble families, such as the 17th century Guards, then the Carrio Nizas at the end of the Old Regime.

The known history of the hotel begins with Jacques Gardes, a bourgeois of Pézenas, who owns it in the second half of the seventeenth century. His son, Claude de Gardes — a king's adviser, a lawyer in parliament, and a principal lieutenant in Pézenas — inherited in 1703 before the property passed on to Carrion's family. Henri-Guillaume de Carrion d'Espagne de Nizas acquired the hotel in 1753, and his descendant, Marie-Françoise-Elisabeth de Carrion, sold it in 1795 to Joseph-Gabriel Gautier. Ranked a Historic Monument in 1944 for its facades, roofs, straight staircase and turret, the building today embodies the architectural prestige of Pézenas, a city marked by its medieval past and its role in the region.

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