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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house of Richelieu, built in the seventeenth century, is part of the ambitious urban project launched by Cardinal Richelieu. The latter transformed his native village into an ideal city, designed according to strict geometric principles: symmetrical streets, ditches, walls and monumental gates. The architect Jacques Lemercier, already in charge of the castle, drew up the plans, while local entrepreneurs, such as Jean Thiriot, made the buildings.

The hotel called pavilion, built around 1633 for Guillaume de Bordeaux – then receiver general of finances in Tours and then secretary of the council – follows the aesthetic cannons of the time. Although redesigned, it retains original elements such as a 17th-century wood cross, commons transformed into workshops, and an 18th-century chimney. The facades and roofs, partially protected since 1932 and 1992, bear witness to this architectural heritage linked to the city's rise.

Richelieu, a new city for his time, embodied the cardinal's centralist will, combining political prestige and urban innovation. The aligned houses, like this one, reflected a strict social hierarchy, where elites (financials, officers) occupied private hotels near the centre. Today, these remains are reminiscent of the legacy of a visionary urbanism, classified as Historical Monuments.

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