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Origin and history

The Hotel de Puymaurin, also known as Hotel Labat de Mourlens, is a private hotel in the city centre of Toulouse, registered to historical monuments since 1925. Located at 34 rue du Languedoc, it was rebuilt in the 17th century and then profoundly redesigned in the 18th century, notably in 1770 under the impulse of Jean-Pierre Labat de Mourlens, adviser to the Toulouse Parliament. Its architecture combines a classic street façade, dated from the 17th century, and a neo-Renaissance building body added in the courtyard in the 19th century, surmounted by an oriel. The piercing of Theodore-Ozenne Street in 1900 separated the hotel from the remains of the former Aussargues hotel, which it once included.

The hotel owes its alternate name, Puymaurin, to a later family who owned it, although its major transformation is linked to Jean-Pierre Labat de Mourlens. The latter, born in 1725, inherited the office of adviser to Parliament in 1760 but was guillotined in 1794 despite conduct deemed civic during the Revolution. The wrought iron ramp of the staircase, built in 1770 by master locksmith Joseph Bosc, is one of the few elements protected by historical monuments. The elevations on Ozenne Street, more sober, would also date from the eighteenth century, contemporary of this ramp.

Architecturally, the hotel illustrates the evolution of Toulouse's aristocratic tastes: classical symmetry on the street (seven spans, central cochère door), contrasting with the neo-Renaissance additions of the court. Ancient cadastres reveal that the plot once extended to Ozenne Street, before being divided. The sculpted lintel windows, the mirandes (story floor) and the denticle cornice highlight the prestige of this building, typical of the hotels between courtyard and garden of the Old Regime.

Today, the hotel of Puymaurin remains a testimony of the urban and social changes of Toulouse: passage from noble families (Dahus, Tournoer, Toupignon) to the post-revolutionary bourgeoisie, and architectural adaptation to local Haussmannian breakthroughs. Its inscription in 1925 aims to preserve this heritage, although only the 18th century ramp enjoys special protection.

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