Hôtel

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Ministère de la Culture, in French. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Ministère de la Culture; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

History

The small town of Châtillon-sur-Indre, situated in the north-west of the department of Indre, was the seat of an important seigneury that came under royal control in 1203. Seat of the particular jurisdiction of the Grand bailly of Touraine, which became a présidial in 1639, it was in the modern period the most important judicial town of Bas-Berry, maintaining authority over a territory covering a large part of Haute-Touraine and half of Bas-Berry. The presence of royal administrations brought it considerable prosperity. At the end of the 16th century, hotels, evidence of new wealth in the town, were built. Documents allowing us to know the circumstances of the construction of this hotel are lacking. The few decorative elements still visible on the large dormers of the main body of the main dwelling date its construction to around 1540, but the interest of this building lies essentially in the two-storey gallery that borders the courtyard to the south, built during the last quarter of the 16th century. This gallery presents many similarities with the façade on the rue Grande of the hotel called d'Henri III. They were built one and the other probably during the reign of Henri III, in those years when the classical style was forming, but it may be thought that they were perhaps designed by the same master mason, sometimes with a certain clumsiness. In these two compositions, the arrangement is symmetrical on either side of a vertical axis, but the entablements, the bands and the cornices also emphasise the horizontals distinctly. He employed the orders, introducing fantasy through figures of grotesques that crown the entablements, the cornices or, on rue Grande, decorate the window sills. It is possible that these figures were carved by the same workshop. The same decorative vocabulary is found on the capitals, whether they are composite at the hotel called d'Henri III, or Ionic, rue du Nord, with volutes, egg-and-dart mouldings, leafy palmettes. On rue Grande, the first level of the bay of the old staircase, composed of two paired openings beneath a wide band forming an entablement, recalls the three paired arcades and the band of the gallery of the hotel of rue du Nord. These two hotels show in what manner a master craftsman, probably local, understood and interpreted the classical style in the last quarter of the 16th century. Like the hotel called d'Henri III, this building on rue du Nord is an important element of the architectural heritage of the town and a rare and fragile witness to a prosperous period in its history.