Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Hôtel de Saint-Marc is a Bordeaux mansion built between 1782 and 1784 for Mr. Dufour, a Parisian resident. Although the architect remained uncertain, Louis Combes, present in Paris in 1780-1781, was a probable candidate. The building, in an atypical style for Bordeaux, is distinguished by its monumental portal and a dome-covered rotunda, inspired by ancient tholoi. Inside, the living rooms preserve woodwork carved by Cabirol, testimony to the refinement of the era.

In 1787, the hotel was acquired by Jean-Paul André, Marquis de Saint-Marc (1728-1818), a passionate art collector. He installed his gallery of paintings, including works by Boucher, Fragonard or Vernet. The building is then renovated by the collaborators of Victor Louis, architect of the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. After the death of the Marquis, his daughter Marie, wife of Henry de Laroze (Mayor of Saint-Laurent-Médoc), inherited it before selling it in 1861 to the Civil Hospices of Bordeaux, today CHU.

Ranked a historic monument since 1921, the hotel has long housed medical services (Labour Medicine, CAPS) until 2016. Since 2020, the CHU has been piloting its restoration to make it a reception space dedicated to seminars and cultural events. At the end of 2023, a call for expressions of interest was launched to entrust its rehabilitation and exploitation to a private partner, as part of a project combining professional and cultural events.

Architecturally, the hotel organizes itself between courtyard and garden, with a hall leading to a large exhibition hall. It opens onto the garden with a colonnade façade, while the vaulted basement once housed kitchens and annexes. The dome of the porch, supported by ten columns, and the interior woodwork underline its exceptional character in the Bordeaux heritage.

Owned by the CHU in Bordeaux, the hotel Saint-Marc today embodies a challenge of valorizing the hospital and cultural heritage. Its garden, with magnolias, should also be open to staff in summer, as part of the ongoing rehabilitation project.

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