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Origin and history

The Hôtel de Raoulx is a mansion built in Avignon between 1692 and 1697, at the initiative of Jean-Paul Raoulx, a merchant from Avignon. In 1692 he acquired two adjoining houses on Rue de la Bonneterie to replace them with a cossuous house, entrusting the masonry works to the Mangarel brothers (August 1696) and the frame to Pierre Gonin (August 1696). The construction period, fixed at 15 months, is supervised by architect Jean Péru, who designs the balcony decorated with a Minerve head and the mascarons of windows, inspired by the Beauvais hotel in Paris (1654).

The interior is distinguished by a wrought iron ramp staircase, made by Guillaume Poussin de Saint-Rémy-en-Provence and Charles Giraud d'Avignon, recalling that of the house Carichon (rue de Taulignan), also attributed to Jean Péru. These elements, as well as the facade and roof, bear witness to the fascination of the Avignonnais bourgeois mansions at the dawn of the eighteenth century. The ensemble has been protected as historical monuments since 4 October 1932.

Historical sources highlight the Parisian influence in the hotel's decoration, notably via the balcony whose style derives directly from the models of Antoine Lepautre. The archives also mention detailed price-facts for the various trades, illustrating the rigorous organization of the construction sites in the modern era. Today, the Hotel de Raoulx remains a remarkable example of the Provencal civil architecture of the late seventeenth century, marked by a mixture of local and national influences.

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