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Origin and history

The Hotel de Sourdeac, located at 8 rue Garancière in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, was built in 1646 on the site of the former Hotel Garancière. Commanded by René de Rieux, bishop-count of Leon in Brittany, he reflects the fascist of a prelate known for his eloquence and splendour. When he died in 1651, the hotel was owned by his nephew, Alexandre de Rieux, Marquis de Sourdeac, giving him his current name. The façade, wrongly attributed to an Italian architect named Bobelini, is actually the work of the brothers Adam and Jacques Robelin, master masons. Its colossal pilasters and capitals adorned with ram heads, rare for the time, make it a notable example of Parisian architecture of the 1640s.

In 1693, the hotel was acquired for 42,000 pounds by Françoise du Gué, widow of a president of the Chamber of Accounts and passionate about theatre. In 1717, the 27-year-old actress Adrienne Lecouvreur gave her first public performance. The house then passes to her daughter, the Marquise Catherine de La Chaise (niece by alliance of the king's confessor), then to her granddaughter, Anne-Françoise de la Chaise d'Aix, wife of Ambassador Pierre-François de Montaigu. Before the Revolution, the hotel was rented by the bishop of Senlis, Jean-Armand de Bessuéjouls de Roquelaure, before being confiscated as a national property.

Under the Restoration, between 1818 and 1850, the hotel houses the town hall of the 11th arrondissement (former division) before becoming, in 1852, the seat of the Plon publishing house, founded by Henri Plon, printer of Napoleon III. The company remained there until 1988, sharing the place for a time with the photographic studio of the Bisson brothers. Ranked a historic monument in 1928, the Hotel de Sourdeac today bears witness to four centuries of history, mixing aristocracy, theatre, politics and publishing.

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