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Origin and history

The Charles Tron Residence is a bourgeois building built in the 3rd quarter of the 19th century, located back from the driveway of Etigny in Bagnères-de-Luchon. The building, of massive cubic volume, is surmounted by a slate roof and decorated with neat architectural decorations: semicircular frontons, polychrome marbles, and a symmetrical perron leading to a framed door. Its location, initially occupied by the garden of the hotel in England, reflects its connection with the spa and hotel activity of the city.

The building was erected in 1854 by the departmental architect Edmond Chambert, also designer of the baths of Luchon, on a plot formerly owned by Noël Tron. Sponsored by Charles Tron – General Councillor, Mayor of Luchon and Member of Parliament – the residence served as both personal accommodation (ground floor and cellar) and accommodation for the staff of the hotel in England, adjacent to Tron. The facades and roofs, remarkably preserved, were listed in the Historical Monuments in 1986.

Inside, despite redevelopments, original elements such as a grey marble staircase and marble coverings of the bearings remain. A small wooden staircase serves the top floor. The cadastral matrix attests to the completion of the works in 1855, with a first taxation in 1858 for an income of 1,200 francs, emphasizing the social and economic prestige of this architectural project.

The location of the Charles Tron Residence, close to the thermal baths and luxury hotels, is part of the urban development of Bagneres-de-Luchon as a spa popular with the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie in the 19th century. Its eclectic architecture, combining classicism and ornaments, bears witness to the aesthetic and functional ambitions of the time, where thermalism became a major cultural and medical phenomenon.

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