Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The hotel of Rohan-Guémené, also known as Hotel Arnauld, is a private hotel in the Marais district of Paris. Built in 1605 by Isaac Arnauld, king's adviser and financial guardian, on a site of the Tournelles Park, it was sold in 1612 to Marshal Lavardin, present during the assassination of Henry IV. In 1637 Prince Louis de Rohan, Grand Veneur of France, became the owner, giving his name to the hotel. Rohan's family, one of the most influential members of the Ancien Régime, lived there until 1782, when they went bankrupt (33 million pounds of debt).

The hotel was sold in 1797 to Louis-Denis Péan de Saint-Gilles, whose widow partially rented it to Victor Hugo from 1832 to 1848. The poet wrote major works such as Ruy Blas and Les Chants du twilight. In 1902, Paul Meurice offered Hugo's manuscripts and objects to the city of Paris to create the Victor-Hugo Museum, inaugurated in 1903. The wing of the Tournelles, meanwhile, once housed a convent of the Daughters of the Cross and later served as a decoration for the film The Magnificent.

Architecturally, the hotel is distinguished by its central house body on Place des Vosges, its two wings in return, and an oriental façade of the seventeenth century in stones and torchi. The courtyard preserves a rare Louis-Philippe fountain. Ranked a historic monument in 1954, it blends classical style and 19th century amenities. His illustrious occupants also included Madame de Sévigné, courtesan Marion Delorme, and Prince Louis de Rohan, executed in 1674 for conspiracy against Louis XIV.

The wing of the Tournelles, intact, was also a place of manufacture of the wooden coffins for the tomb of Napoleon I to the Invalides. The sculptor Lucienne Heuvelmans, the first woman winner of the Grand Prix of Rome, installed her workshop there at the beginning of the 20th century. The hotel thus embodies centuries of French political, literary and artistic history.

Future

In 1902, Paul Meurice donated drawings of books, manuscripts, furniture and objects to the city of Paris to form the Victor-Hugo Museum. It was inaugurated on 30 June 1903.

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