Hôtel Jerphanion-Cambacérès

English translation

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History

The present hotel results from the refurbishment of two buildings purchased in spring 1720 by Jean de Jerphanion, esquire and syndic of Velay. The northern part of the building comprises a house and a garden with parterre; the southern part comprises a house and a stable. These parts dated from the 16th century. Jean de Jerphanion rebuilt the building almost entirely. In 1871, the hotel is sold to the comte Chaulne who decorates it. In 1901, it is purchased by the hospices who gradually alter it. The hotel forms an irregular quadrilateral fitted with two small avant-corps linked by a balcony-terrace overlooking the garden parterres. The building rests on a basement storey in the basement on the street side, and half filled by the embankment of the gardens to the west. Formerly, it communicated on this side at ground level with a common courtyard. Two noble storeys topped with an attic storey constitute the rest of the elevation. Internally, the first level has vaults with broken barrel vaults. The western rooms formerly served as kitchen and retain a monumental fireplace whose rectilinear mouldings of the mantelpiece are in a 16th-century spirit. The main door leads into a vast vessel which encompasses the vestibule leading to the grand apartments of the ground floor and the stairwell which serves the storeys. A wrought-iron balustrade enhanced with gilding adorns the staircase. The grand apartments facing the garden form four rooms in enfilade along the terrace. All these rooms have been remodelled and have lost their original decoration, except for the dining room with blue wainscoting picked out in white. Plasterwork formed of interlacing with festooned vegetable decoration retains the Louis XIV style. The wooden fireplace has a mantel adorned with mouldings in relief with geometric design. The overmantel is formed of a large panel shaped at the top, recently covered with marouflage canvas. This panel is dominated by a round frame crowned with a mask at the height of the cornice of the ceiling. A strip adorned with a design inspired by a basketwork motif runs around the whole of the overmantel. This room entirely panelled bears the mark of the 18th century. This hotel is a provincial example of the Régence style which was flourishing in Paris at that time.