Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Fumé hotel, also known as Fumey or Fumey, is an iconic Gothic building built in Poitiers between the 15th and 16th centuries. Located at the top of a steep slope overlooking Rue de la Chaîne, a major axis of the medieval city, it illustrates the opulence of bourgeois families of the time. Today, it houses offices and rooms of the Faculty of Human Sciences and Arts of the University of Poitiers, after being transformed in the 20th century to adapt to its new educational functions.

The origin of the hotel dates back to Pierre Fumé de la Perrière, a lawyer and influential member of the Poitiers city body from 1463. Born into a noble family of Poitou, Anjou and Touraine, he married Hilaire Herbert around 1470, bringing him the seigneury of Château Couvert. The construction of the hotel was initiated between 1470 and 1484, the year of his death. Pierre Fumé, who became mayor of Poitiers, first built a house in the backyard, typical of the flamboyant Gothic.

At the beginning of the 16th century, his son François Fumé de La Perrière, also mayor of Poitiers in 1520, enlarged and modified the building. It adds a sumptuously carved street façade, combining Gothic motifs (pinnacles, cabbages) and decorative military elements (mâchicoulis, peppers). When he died in 1532, the hotel remained in the family until the 18th century, before being sold to Jean-Charles André de Veillechèze in 1784, then to a religious congregation in 1826.

In 1919, the University of Poitiers acquired the Fumé Hotel to install the Faculty of Arts. The arrangements of the 1920s preserved historical structures, such as the vaulted passage and the central courtyard, while adding amphitheatres. An architectural campaign in 1961, led by André Ursault, modernises the spaces while respecting the spirit of the private hotel, with a lobby of inscriptions occupying the old house body.

The facade on street, classified as a Historic Monument in 1889, is a masterpiece of the flamboyant Gothic. It combines splint windows, animal and plant sculptures, and a loggia in wooden panels supported by twisted columns. The inner courtyard, organized around a vaulted passage, preserves carved skylights and a staircase turret surmounted by a lead unicorn, symbol of prestige.

The 19th century transformations, like neo-Gothic additions, were abolished in the 1920s. A mosaic representing the coat of arms of the university and the date of 1431 was added. The hotel Fumé thus embodies the evolution of a medieval heritage, past from aristocratic residence to teaching place, while preserving its architectural identity.

External links