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Origin and history

Hotel Le Brun is a private hotel built in the early eighteenth century in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, 47 rue du Cardinal-Lemoine. His history began in 1651 when the painter Charles Le Brun acquired land on the slopes of Mount Sainte-Geneviève, then on the outskirts of the city, near the enclosure of Philippe Auguste. Upon his death in 1690, then his widow's in 1699, the estate fell to their nephew, Charles II Le Brun, auditor at the Court of Auditors. The latter entrusted in 1700-1701 the design of a mansion to architect Germain Boffrand, then little known, and master mason Nicolas Saint-Denis.

The hotel, completed at the beginning of the eighteenth century, is distinguished by its innovative plan: four free facades, without wings connecting the house body to the buildings on street, a rarity in Paris at that time. The frontons carved by Anselm Flamen adorn the facades on courtyard and garden, celebrating the memory of Charles Le Brun. Among the illustrious tenants were the painter Antoine Watteau (1718-1719) and the engraver Edme Jeaurat (1720-1726). Charles II Le Brun died there in 1727, leaving a building that later housed figures such as Buffon (1766) and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1805).

In the 19th century, the hotel became a pension run by the Haudicourt family, before being acquired by the City of Paris in 1912 to install public services. Ranked a historic monument in 1955 (façades on courtyard and garden), it successively houses the Office of Social Housing, then, after restorations in the 1990s, the direction of the OPAC until 2008. Purchased in 2009 by the De Particulier group in Particulier for 35.5 million euros, it is transformed into an event venue. Since 2024, Polaris has been producing immersive performances under the name Le Grand Hôtel des Rêves.

The hotel's architecture, marked by the influence of Boffrand, is characterized by stripped facades animated by carved frontons. The one in the garden represents Charles Le Brun presented at Minerve, surrounded by allegories of Painting and Sculpture, while the one in the courtyard bears the coat of arms of Charles II Le Brun framed with unicorns. The wrought iron ramp of Cafin's large staircase completes this remarkable ensemble. Subsequent transformations ( 1930s and 1960s) densified the plot, but the hotel retains its 18th century character.

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