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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Hotel Deurbroucq is a neo-classical mansion built in the 18th century on the driveway of Gloriette Island, in the centre of Nantes. In 1764, commissioned by Dominique Deurbroucq, a shipowner enriched by the slave trade, he was designed by the architect Jean-Baptiste Ceineray, already author of the plans of the Chamber of Accounts of Brittany. The building, completed in 1769 for a cost of 500,000 pounds, symbolizes the wealth of its sponsor and its social ambition.

Upon the death of Dominique Deurbroucq, the hotel passed to his son Piter, Baron of Empire and Commander of the Legion of Honour, before being divided into two lots in 1784. The grand hotel remained in the family until 1821, then changed hands several times: acquired by the merchant Paul Métois in 1821, sold to the Dupuy family in 1844, then to the Godards in 1874, which replaced the original coat of arms with their initials. In 1920, the Grandjouan family became its owner.

Damaged during the 1943 bombings, the hotel was restored and listed as historical monuments in 1945. The small hotel (left wing) is successively occupied by Peugeot, the CHU of Nantes (from 1986), and the commercial court until 2006. Today, the administrative court and the CHU share the premises, while the property remains private.

The neo-classical architecture of the hotel, marked by its fascist, reflects the golden age of the Nantes shipowners in the eighteenth century, a prosperity largely linked to triangular commerce. Its history also illustrates the urban and social changes of Nantes, from the Enlightenment to the contemporary era.

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