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Origin and history

The Goyet Hotel of Livron, built in the first half of the 18th century in Roanne, is a former mansion that became sub-prefecture. Although sources evoke a construction between 1767 and 1770 by architect Jean-Antoine Morand for Jacques de Flesselles, intendant of Lyon, other writings suggest an earlier date, around 1752, for the Goyet de Livron family. This gap could be linked to the passage of Madame l'Infante, daughter of Louis XV, that same year. The building has maintained a homogeneous structure since its creation, with a wrought iron staircase and period parquet floors.

In the 18th century, the hotel welcomed royal personalities: in 1771 and 1773, the sisters Marie-Josephine and Marie-Thérèse de Savoie, future wives of Louis XVIII and Charles X, stayed there. For Marie-Thérèse, a temporary theatre was erected in the garden, and then transferred to the theatre of Artois. In 1804, Pope Pius VII stopped on his journey to Paris for the sacrament of Napoleon I, followed in 1815 by Marie-Thérèse of France, known as Madame Royale, the surviving daughter of Louis XVI.

In the 19th century, the hotel changed its hands: sold in 1824 to Joseph Devillaine, a local banker and politician, he became the seat of his bank before being bought by the state in 1850 to house the sub-prefecture. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, then President of the Republic, stayed there in 1852. The building, its 19th-century landscaped garden dominated by a cedar from Lebanon, and its interior decorations (Louis XV lounge inspired by Jean-Baptiste Pillement) were listed as historical monuments in 2014.

The octagonal lounge, the former office of the sub-prefect until 1981, is distinguished by its marked floor and its locks representing signs of card play. The distribution of the rooms, unchanged from the beginning, and the wrought iron ramp of the staircase testify to the architectural richness of the era. Today, the whole (building, garden, fence) remains state property and symbolizes Roanne's administrative and historical heritage.

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