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Origin and history

The Hotel des Loups is a private hotel located in Nancy, built during the first half of the eighteenth century. It was built by architect Germain Boffrand for M. de Curel, a louver (wolf hunter) at the service of the Duke of Lorraine. This monument illustrates the Lorrain civil architecture of the period, combining classical elegance and residential functions. Its basement probably preserves elements of the Danish bastion, a vestige of the old fortifications of the city.

Ranked Historic Monument by order of 30 June 1990, the hotel is distinguished by its facades and roofs, its cobbled courtyard, its portal decorated with wolf statues, as well as two fountains (one backed by the garden wall, the other in an angle of the courtyard). These protected elements reflect the prestige of its sponsor and the know-how of Boffrand, major architect of Duke Léopold I. The official address, 1 rue des Loups, places the monument at the heart of the heritage of the country, in a district marked by the history of the country.

The statues of wolves, symbols of the function of M. de Curel, underline the link between the hotel and the ducal court. The building, today preserved, bears witness both to Nancy's urban planning under the Dukes of Lorraine and to the adaptation of noble spaces to practical needs, such as hunting. Its late classification (1990) reveals a late but significant heritage recognition for this 18th century jewel.

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