Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Ribault hotel, also known as the Langres or La Rivière hotel, is a private hotel built in 1606-1607 on the Place des Vosges in Paris, then Place Royale. He was commissioned by Antoine Ribault, State Councillor and Intendant of Finance, and his wife Madeleine Boucher d'Orsay, and embodied the aristocratic architecture of the early 17th century. Its facade of six arcades, typical of the hotels of the square, masks an interior organization initially modest: a body of houses unique in depth, completed later by a wing in return.

In 1613, the hotel passed into the hands of financier Antoine de Louvencourt, who lived there 35 years with his wife Marguerite de Flecelles. In 1652, Abbé Louis Barbier de La Rivière, third owner, undertook a major transformation by entrusting the work to architect François Le Vau. The latter doubles the size of the house body, adds a wing in the courtyard, and designs a large staircase preceded by a vestibule. The interiors of the first floor, including the abbey's apartments, are redecorated in a harmonized style, with panels and ceilings attributed to Charles Le Brun and Michel Dorigny.

The hotel changed hands again in 1688, acquired by Catherine de Malon, widow of André Pottier de Novion, master of petitions. He remained in Canillac's family from 1716, before being seized in the Revolution after the emigration of Pierre-Charles Laurent de Villedeuil, Minister of State. Turned into a town hall in the 8th arrondissement, it undergoes internal and external changes, such as the addition of a campanile and a clock, still visible today. Ranked a historic monument in 1954 for its facades, arcade gallery and staircase, it has been home since 1963 to the synagogue Charles Liché, founded by the hazzan of the rue des Tournelles.

Among the remarkable elements of the hotel, the panellings and ceilings of the alcove room of the Abbé, disassembled in 1867, were restored and exhibited at the Musée Carnavalet between 1878 and 1879, and again in 2014. The plans drawn up in 1718 for the Canillac family confirm that the layout designed by Le Vau had remained unchanged until then. The hotel thus illustrates the evolution of architectural and decorative tastes from the 17th to the 18th century, while at the same time witnessing the political upheavals of the Revolution.

Future

In 1963, in the former premises of the study circle of the Marais, on the 1st floor, Charles Liché, hazzan de la Synagogue de la rue des Tournelles, founded the Synagogue de la Place de Vosges. He was renamed on June 16, 2006 in honour of his founder, Rabbi Charles Liché, a rescued Auschwitz.

Every year there is a commemoration of the liberation of the Auschwitz camps.

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