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Origin and history

The house of Richelieu, built in the seventeenth century, is part of the ambitious urban project of Cardinal Richelieu, which transformed his native village into an ideal city. The plans, drawn up by architect Jacques Lemercier, imposed a strict geometry: symmetrical streets, ditches, walls and aligned houses. This private hotel, erected in 1633 for Jean Martineau (greffier and treasurer), reflects this rigor with a wing in return for a square housing an atypical staircase, without a level of rest.

The interior, deeply redesigned, has lost its original distribution, but preserves elements of the era as wooden cross-sections with losnge windows. The chimneys, added in the 18th and 19th centuries, bear witness to successive adaptations. The communes, converted into houses, and the facades (on street and on courtyard) protected since 1932 and 1992, highlight the heritage value of the site. The staircase, partly made of stone and wood, is a rare example of the civil architecture of the time.

The city of Richelieu, ranked among the "Most Beautiful Detours of France", owes its orthogonal plan to the cardinal's desire to create a model city, combining prestige and functionality. This hotel, commissioned by a judicial officer close to power, embodies the alliance between Richelieu's political ambition and Lemercier's architectural excellence, lastingly marking the urban landscape of the region.

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