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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Hotel des Trésoriers de la Bourse, also known as the Rodez Bénavent Hotel, is the largest private hotel in the city, the historic heart of Montpellier. Located at 4 rue des Trésoriers de la Bourse, it owes its name to the treasurer of the Bourse du Languedoc, transmitted with the property of 1650 to the Revolution. Its present aspect is the result of controversial works: some historians, such as Claude Huver, date them from the second half of the seventeenth century (Family Gallières), while the Mérimée base evokes the eighteenth century, with a staircase of honour completed in 1731. The hotel retains medieval traces, but its current structure, in quadrilateral with two courtyards and a garden, was mainly shaped between 1631 and 1731.

The hotel was successively possessed by notable figures, including Antoine de Saporta (physicist of the kings of Navarre as early as 1554), then the Bonnier de la Mosson, famous for their fabulous celebrations in the interior garden. In the 19th century, the Rodez Benavent family gave him its second name. The Louis XIV gate, the highest in Montpellier, opens onto a courtyard of honor where a monumental staircase, with rampant balustrades and stone arches, leads to an adorned gallery. The interior decorations, such as the curved front door, reflect the influence of the architects Jean Giral and Daviler, engaged by the owners to modernize the ensemble.

The protections under the Historical Monuments (classified in 1945) concern facades, blankets and the honorary staircase. The sources point to disagreements over the attribution of the works: the symmetry of the courtyard and the large carved door would be the work of Joseph Bonnier (early 18th), while the rear building bodies, on the garden, would return to Pierre de Sartre (circa 1695). Only certainty: the hotel illustrates the social ascent of the financial elites of Languedoc, mixing medieval heritage and classical ambition.

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