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Origin and history

The Fleury de Villayer Hotel, also known as the Droz des Villars Hotel, is a mansion built in the 18th century in the historic centre of Besançon. Sponsored by Claude-François Renouard de Fleury-Villayer, Grand Maître des Eaux-et-Forêts, it was designed by the bisontin architect Jean-Charles Colombot between 1757 and 1759. The building adopts a "U" plan typical of the aristocratic mansions of the time, with facades of cut stone and a pediment decorated with marteled coat of arms.

During the French Revolution, the hotel was requisitioned to serve as a prison. In the 19th century, it passed into the hands of the Droz des Villars family, which made changes to it, such as the stairwell made in false marble in 1867 by the artisan Potier. The monument is partially protected as historical monuments: its facades on courtyard and street were inscribed in 1937, followed by roofs in 1942.

Located at 26 Chifflet Street in the Boucle district, the hotel illustrates the aristocratic urbanism of Besançon before the Revolution. Its history reflects the political upheavals of its time, from its construction for a notable local until its transformation into a prison and then a bourgeois residence. Successive expansions, such as the acquisition of adjacent land in 1759 to expand the garden, testify to the social importance of its owners.

The hotel's architecture combines classical elegance and functionality, with a body of entry pierced by a check-in passage, ground floor sheds and first floor domestic housing. The facade on garden, in coated bellows, contrasts with the rest of the stone building. These details, as well as the artisan's signature on the honorary staircase, highlight the care taken to make it.

Today, the Fleury Hotel in Villayer remains a testament to the architectural and historical heritage of Besançon, linked to both the local aristocracy and the urban transformations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its inscription in historical monuments makes it a key element of the cultural landscape of the city, alongside other buildings of the same period.

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