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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

Dupré-Latour House, also known as Hotel Dupré la Tour, is a former mansion located at 7 rue Pérolerie, in Old Valencia (Drôme). Built in 1522 by the Genas family, enriched by the salt trade, it illustrates Renaissance civil architecture with a marked Italian influence. Its access is arranged around a narrow courtyard illuminating the rooms spread over four levels, served by a screw staircase housed in a semi-sailed turret.

In 1760, the hotel was acquired by François Dupré, then transferred in 1779 to his brother Blaise, whose descendants – named Dupré la Tour – occupied it until 1953. Valencia became its owner in 1972. Ranked a historic monument in 1927 (after a partial inscription in 1926), the house is distinguished by its molasse facade decorated with antiquisant sculptures: canned pilasters, Corinthian capitals, and a lintel representing the Judgment of Pâris and the Abduction of Helen, surmounted by a tympanum with Lombard shell.

The building combines defensive elements (close entrance corridor) and residential elements (console balconys, door windows). The historic kitchen on the ground floor retains its fireplace, kitchen garden and stone sink. The fragility of the molasses required repeated restoration. Today, visits are limited to Heritage Days or by reservation, highlighting its listed staircase and Renaissance decoration.

The Dupré-Latour graphic, although etymologically inexact, was imposed by common use. The building bears witness to the influence of the valentinoian trading elites during the Renaissance, mixing trade, power and Italian art in a preserved urban centre.

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