Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house of Richelieu, built in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is part of the ambitious urban project of Cardinal Richelieu. The latter transformed his native village into an ideal city, designed by architect Jacques Lemercier, with symmetrical streets, ditches and aligned houses. The land was given in 1633 to Thomas Morant, Baron du Mesnil Garnier, to build a 10,000-pound mansion, completed in 1634.

In the 18th century, the house was enlarged with additional housing and a ramped central staircase. The brick and stone commons, added at the end of the 19th century, as well as a south wing of the same century, complete the whole. The facades and roofs, protected in 1932 and 1997, bear witness to its heritage importance.

The house illustrates the civil architecture of the period, mixing original elements (doors, stone fireplaces) and later modifications. Its porch and stone staircase, then wooden, are remarkable examples of the evolution of constructive techniques between the 17th and 19th centuries.

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