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Origin and history

The Cheusses hotel, located in Rochefort in Charente-Maritime, is a mansion built mainly in the seventeenth century. A classic "U" shape, it consists of a courtyard and a French garden, now extinct. His name comes from Jacques Henri de Cheusses, the last seigneur of Rochefort, who completed its construction. Prior to the founding of the Rochefort arsenal in 1666, he served as a model for the city's orthonormized plan and embodied military and maritime power as the headquarters of the Navy commanders.

Construction began at the end of the 16th century under the impulse of Gédéon de Lauzeré, son of Adrien de Lauzeré, first owner of the land purchased from Henry IV in 1594. The main body was erected around 1650, completed between 1670 and 1672 by a south wing, giving the building its final shape. Between 1690 and 1927, the hotel housed the naval commanders, military chiefs of the arsenal, before becoming a naval museum in 1936, then the National Museum of the Navy in 1978.

In the 18th century, the hotel underwent major renovations: the south wing was rebuilt in 1744, the north wing restored in 1751 with the addition of a sundial, and a neo-classical portal flanked by healers was erected between 1749 and 1775. The interior woodwork, designed by Onesime Augias and approved in 1771-1775, is among the oldest in Rochefort. Ranked a historic monument in 1932, the building also served as a seat for naval security (1951-1959) before its definitive museum conversion.

The Cheusses hotel is distinguished by its central role in French naval history. It was the home of the intendants of the Marine, then the prefects maritime, and offered a strategic view of the arsenal and the Charente River. Its architecture reflects stylistic evolutions, from classicism to neo-classicism, while its French garden, which disappeared in 1830, showed its prestige. Today, it houses unique maritime collections and neoclassical woodwork, symbols of its fascinating past.

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