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Origin and history

The Hotel Plaza de Biarritz was created in 1928 by the Laxague couple, who founded a commercial estate on a plot owned by them. To carry out this hotel and commercial project, they called on the Parisian architect Louis-Hippolyte Boileau, associated with Paul Perrotte, a local colleague. Together, they designed not only the structure of the hotel, but also its interior decorations and all the furniture. The spatial organization reflects a deep reflection: the rooms, distributed around a gallery hall on each floor, are served by a rotating staircase illuminated by geometric stained glass windows, whose patterns are found in the ironworks of the ramp and elevator cage.

The basement houses the dining room, the kitchen and various living rooms, while the ground floor is dedicated to reception services. The exterior façade is distinguished by an arcade gallery with pillars decorated with black and gold ceramics, as well as by triangular oriels, visually animating the levels. These architectural elements, combined with a functional interior distribution, illustrate the attention paid to aesthetics and comfort, characteristic of luxury hotels in the interwar period. The building was partially protected by an order of 30 May 1990, classifying its facades, roofs, staircases, elevators and floor galleries.

The Plaza is part of a privileged period for Biarritz, a popular resort of the European elite. Its architecture, combining modernity and refinement, reflects the influence of the artistic currents of the time, such as Art Deco, while meeting the expectations of a demanding clientele. The collaboration between Boileau and Perrotte, combining Parisian expertise and local sensitivity, created a functional and emblematic place, marked by a rare stylistic unit, from stained glass to ironwork. Today, the hotel remains a testament to the age of seaside tourism in the Atlantic Pyrenees.

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