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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Hotel du Jouhannel de Jenzat, also known as the Hotel de Jenzat or Hotel de Roquefeuil, is an 18th-century mansion located in Riom, Puy-de-Dôme. Initially, the site housed a large hotel with garden and outbuildings belonging to the Souchet family, sold in 1575 to Jean Régin, lieutenant on the senes floor of Auvergne. By marriage alliances, the property passed to the families of Besse and, in 1748, to Guillaume du Jouhannel, Baron of Jenzat, who undertook his partial demolition to rebuild the current building in the Louis XV style.

Reconstruction began in 1750, retaining only the medieval substructures. The hotel became a prestigious reception place: in 1785, Madame Louise and Madame Adelaide of France, aunts of Louis XVI, stayed there on their trip to Auvergne. Madame Adelaide even offered her portrait to the owners. After the Revolution, the hotel was partly rented in rooms until the 1850s, before briefly housing the Riom Municipal Museum between 1859 and 1866.

Ranked a historic monument in 1954, the hotel is distinguished by its square plan, its richly decorated street façade, and its preserved interiors, including 18th century furniture (secretaries, Polish bed, portraits). The apartment rooms, such as the music room and the alcove room, open onto the garden, while the traffic spaces (saper, anteroom) overlook the courtyard. The building bears witness to the influence of the provincial aristocracy and its adaptation to political upheavals.

The successive owners marked his history: Jean-Baptiste Julien du Jouhannel, a councillor at the Paris Parliament, married Hyacinthe Ferrand de Fontorte in 1774, of which Marie Françoise Henriette, married in 1816 to Pierre Sablon du Corail, descended. Their son, Adolphe Sablon du Corail, handed the hotel to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Edward de Roquefeuil in 1880. The original furniture, protected by objects, includes rare pieces such as a vegetable tree, a fire screen, and family portraits.

The architecture reflects a social hierarchy: the bays on the first floor on street, higher and without guardrails, contrast with those of the garden, equipped with ironwork. Medieval substructures, including a Gothic chimney in the basements, recall the ancient origins of the site. The hotel, one of the few in Riom to keep this typology between courtyard and garden, shares this feature with the Dufraisse Hotel and the Rollet Hotel in Avaux.

Today, the Jouhannel Hotel in Jenzat remains an emblematic example of the civil heritage of the eighteenth century, illustrating both the fascist of the Old Regime and the changes of the Revolution. Its classification in 1954 and the preservation of its furniture make it a rare testimony of the aristocratic art of living in the province.

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