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Key figures

Origin and history

The Dodun Hotel is a private hotel built in 1727 by architect Jean-Baptiste Bullet de Chamblain for Pierre Dodun, receiver general of the finances of Bordeaux and La Rochelle. Located at 21 rue de Richelieu and 10 rue Molière (1st arrondissement), it consists of three buildings connected by a wing on courtyard. Its Regency style staircase, adorned with a wrought iron ramp and a carved ceiling, was immortalized by Eugene Atget at the beginning of the 20th century. The façades, the interior passage and the covers have been protected under the Historic Monuments since 1925 and 1946. It is worth noting that its original panelling, sold at the end of the 19th century, now adorns the Breteuil hotel (Embassy of Ireland) and Wadiesdon Manor in England.

Pierre Dodun, the hotel's sponsor, lived there until his death in 1750. In the 19th century, the goldsmith Louis-Isidore Choiselat lived there from 1815 to 1825, followed by the temporary installation of the famous café de la Régence in 1852. In the 20th century, the French state acquired the hotel in 1948 to set up a post office, while the floors remained inhabited. In 2006, the city hall of Paris acquired 25 social housing units as part of a policy to preserve heritage and create affordable housing.

The hotel preserves traces of its history, like a 17th century pulley in the mansard of Rue de Richelieu, vestige of the lifting systems of the era. Its architecture, marked by the transition between classicism and rococo, illustrates the evolution of Parisian private hotels in the Enlightenment century. The successive protections (1925 and 1946) underline its heritage value, while its reallocations reflect the urban and social changes of Paris from the 18th century to the present.

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