Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Mareschal Hotel is a Besançon mansion built in the early sixteenth century, after the fire of 1516 that destroyed the original home of the Mareschal family. Guillaume Mareschal, notary and prominent member of this line, undertook his reconstruction in 1532, incorporating decorative elements announcing the Renaissance, such as an ornamental flora. The main facade of cut stone still bears the family shield, described as "silver with a three stardazur band and accompanied by two clusters of purple grapes".

In the 18th century, the hotel changed owners and was transformed to accommodate shops: the ground floor was pierced with butchery arcades, while the outbuildings (old stables and hay barns) underwent modifications. The archives reveal that in 1775 two owners, a winemaker and a master mason, obtained permission to modify the façade on Rue Rivotte, adding skylights and an arcade. These developments, partly carried out, reflect the adaptation of the building to the urban uses of the period.

Ranked a Historic Monument in 1938 for its facades and roofs, the hotel experienced restorations in the 20th century that removed some side windows and 19th century wooden fronts. Its vaulted basement in a cradle, its French ceilings, and the traces of its lost spiral staircase testify to its architectural evolution. Despite the transformations (partial destruction of the stables for the Besançon-Le Locle railway line in 1884), there remains a remarkable example of bisontin aristocratic habitat, mixing medieval heritage and renaissant influences.

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