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Key figures

Origin and history

The hotel, located at 16 Place Richelieu in Amboise, is a 16th century mansion. He was also known as the unknown Philosopher's house, for Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, a philosopher and mystic, was born there in 1743. The building is located at the crossroads of the squares of Commerce and Richelieu, as well as the street Rabelais, in a district which, at the time of its construction, was located outside the closed city, in the southern suburbs.

The hotel has undergone modifications over the centuries: some of the buildings have been demolished, but the gate in full hangar and the body of houses on street remain. The latter, restored in the 1980s, includes an elevated ground floor, a floor and a top. Two sculpted gable windows once decorated the roof. A commemorative plaque recalls the birth of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin in this hotel, correcting a confusion with another plaque located elsewhere in town.

The street façade and the roof of the hotel were listed as historical monuments by order of 26 April 1948. Although partially demolished, the building retains significant architectural elements of the Renaissance. Today it belongs to the municipality of Amboise and its current use (visit, rental, etc.) is not specified in the available sources.

Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, born in this hotel in 1743, sold it in 1767. His philosophical and mystical work, marked by writings such as The Ministry of Man-Spirit, influenced the spiritual thought of the eighteenth century. The presence of this hotel in the Amboisian heritage bears witness to the historic and cultural importance of the city, linked both to the Renaissance and to the intellectual currents of the Enlightenment.

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