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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

La Boétie House is a private hotel located at No. 10 in Place du Peyrou in Sarlat-la-Canéda, New Aquitaine. Built between 1520 and 1525 by Antoine de La Boétie (or La Boytie), a criminal lieutenant on the senate floor, it embodies the Italian Renaissance style popularized after the Italian wars. Its architecture combines a public ground floor, a noble floor, and a courtyard accessible by a passageway, with a perpendicular extension housing a staircase. The facade, restored in 1910 after a classification in 1889, saw its hinges redone to regain a form deemed more complete.

The family La Boétie, originally from the Sarladese bourgeoisie, was attested as Boyt in 1204. In the 15th century, Guillaume Boyt (†1467) acquired the mill of Clusel, and his son Raymond married Hélène de Verdon. Antoine de La Boétie, Raymond's grandson, transforms the family name into La Boétie and expands the family's annuities. Married to Philippe de Calvimont, he was the father of Stephen de La Boétie (1530–163), author of the Speech of Voluntary servitude, born in this house. The monument preserves a Renaissance fireplace and an authentic lauze roof.

Ranked a Historic Monument in 1889, the house in 2023 receives a grant of €170,000 via the Heritage Lotto for a restoration estimated at €716,000 (2024–2025). A contemporary fresco (2010) adorns the room of Stephen: the text of the Speech of Voluntary servitude is called on the walls by artist Arno Fabre. The facades and roofs of the back house, overlooking the Violette impasse, have been inscribed since February 2025.

The building mixes pea, wood panels and cut stone, with snout windows. His history reflects the nobility ambitions of Antoine de La Boétie, seeking to raise his bourgeois land as a noble den of La Mothe. The house, a property shared between the commune and the private, remains a symbol of Sarlat's literary and architectural heritage, linked to the friendship between Étienne de La Boétie and Michel de Montaigne.

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