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Origin and history

La Petite Bourdaisière is a private hotel built at the end of the 15th century in Tours, in the Old Towers district, at 2 rue du Petit-Pré. Built in brick and stone, it is distinguished by a tower of polygonal staircase, characteristic of the civil architecture of the period. Originally he belonged to Nicolas Gaudin, seigneur de la Bourdaisière, and then passed to his descendants, including the Babou family, influential under François I.

In 1613, Isabelle Babou de La Bourdaisière sold the building to an association of master upholsterers, including Alexandre Motheron, who installed a branch of the Gobelins factory. This workshop, linked to the production of tapestries, marks the economic history of Tours. In 1625 Motheron gave up the property to the Ursulines, which founded a convent there until the French Revolution (1792).

The monument, adjacent to the chapel Saint-Michel, has been inscribed in the Historical Monuments since 1926. After the Revolution, he became the Small Seminary of Tours, then was bought in 1983 by the Marie Guyart association to establish the Marie de l'Incarnation Centre, always animated by the Ursulines. Its history reflects the religious, artisanal and heritage changes of the city.

The Petite Bourdaisière also illustrates the role of local elites: the Babou, close to the royal power, developed a tapestry workshop among the first of Tours. Its architecture, preserved despite the changes in vocation, bears witness to the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in the Loire Valley.

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