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Origin and history

The Gilbert Hotel is an Art Deco-style mansion built in Poitiers between 1933 and 1935 by architect André Ursault for the Gilbert family, enriched in the coffee trade. The building, located at 13 rue de Blossac, combines a neo-classical facade inspired by the eighteenth century with resolutely modern interiors, with decors signed by André Champetier de Ribes (Domi) and the ironworks of Gilbert Poillerat. Confiscated during the Second World War, it became an administrative place after 1945 before building today the administrative court of Poitiers.

The building is part of an ambitious family project: Maurice Gilbert, owner, built the building on land acquired from the Domaines. The architect Ursault designs not only the plans, but also the woodwork, furniture and luminaires, collaborating with exceptional craftsmen such as the ceramist Maurice Gensoli or the house Jean Perzel. After years of requisitions and various uses (headquarters of the Commissioner of the Republic, president of the university), the State purchased the hotel in 1994 to install the court, restored in order to maintain the original style.

The poitevin limestone façade on the street evokes the Louis XV style with its rocky balcony and balustrade, while the monumental entrance is decorated with a cubist fresco of the Swedish Rudolf Gowenius, representing Poitevin monuments. Inside, the circular hall, with a glass dome, and the honorary staircase embody the art deco, with noble materials such as marbled stucco and calligraphed ironwork. The ensemble, registered with the Historical Monuments in 2005, is today a preserved example of architecture of the 1930s.

The facade on the garden, marked by an elegant rotunda, once housed the Gilbert dining room, now the office of the president of the court. The garden, although reduced, retains a pergola, vestige of the original layout. The successive transformations (audience room in a former salon, redevelopment in 1995-96) respected the spirit of the place, with woodwork inspired by the unrealized projects of Ursault. A contemporary sculpture, Le Porteur de paix by Jean-Pierre Dusaillant, now adorns the staircase bearing.

The Gilbert family also owned the Beauvoir mansion in Mignanoux-Beauvoir, rehabilitated by Ursault and the Martineau brothers in the same Art Deco style between 1929 and 1935. This mansion, surrounded by a park built by Jean Viaud-Bruant (today a golf course), housed a chapel decorated with paintings by Gowenius and stained glass windows by Colin, built to celebrate the birth of a grandson. The two properties illustrate the influence of Ursault and the taste of Gilbert for a mixture of classicism and modernity.

Listed on the Additional Inventory of Historic Monuments in 2005 and labeled "Twentieth Century Heritage", the Gilbert Hotel bears witness to a pivotal period in which Poitiers, a university and administrative city, sees the emergence of bold architecture. Its history, marked by changes of vocation (private housing, institutional headquarters, courthouse), reflects the social and political upheavals of the twentieth century in France.

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