This magnificent building, located in the Marais Parisien, has been in the news for the past few days. First Clisson private mansion , then Hotel de Guise then Soubise , it becomes the headquarters of the National Archives and will soon house the Museum of the History of France . A fair return for a hotel itself steeped in history?
From the medieval hotel...
Olivier de Clisson, successor to the constable of France Du Guesclin, had a private mansion built from 1371, outside the ramparts of Philippe-Auguste, in the s called at the time Le Temple, today Le Marais. There are currently two turrets or watchtowers as well as the fortified entrance to rue des Archives.
The hotel served as the residence of the Duke of Bedford between 1420 and 1435. It then became the property of the Albret family. It was bought in 1553 by François de Lorraine, Duke of Guise and Anne d'Este his wife, granddaughter of Louis XII. There too, only the chapel and the former guard room remain, where the Leaguers of the Catholic party met during the war on the succession to the throne before the death of Henry III. It is perhaps here that the night of Saint Bartholomew was decided in 1572, as well as Barricades Day in 1588, a day that forced Henry III to leave Paris.
Marie de Guise inherited this hotel where she hosted, among others, Corneille and Charpentier. Childless, on his death in 1688, the Princess of Condé and the Duchess of Hanover became the owners. The hotel was bought in 1700 by François de Rohan, Prince of Soubise and his wife Anne de Rohan-Chabot. They made modifications and arrangements there, including the half-moon orientation on a vast main courtyard and colonnades and the entrance to the hotel, which will henceforth be the current entrance:rue des Francs Bourgeois, which will represent a vast ensemble connected by the gardens.
The interior decoration of the hotel, which remains a model of the Rococo style, is made with the help of the most famous sculptors and painters of the time, including François Boucher, Carle Van Loo, Charles Natoire and Jean Restout. It is organized along a series of bedrooms and lounges, including the famous oval lounge. Eight corner panels, illustrating the story of Psyche according to La Fontaine, underline the plan of this living room and accentuate the rhythm of its paneling, mirrors and arched bay windows opening onto the garden. The overdoors are decorated with mythological or pastoral scenes and richly framed with rococo-style gilding.
... at the future Museum of the History of France
This hotel was forwarded to Cardinal de Rohan, Prince-Bishop of Strasbourg, who is the son of François de Rohan . Four cardinals from Rohan lived here in the 18th century, the last of whom was involved in the affair of the Queen's Necklace on the eve of the French Revolution.
Acquired by the state in 1808, Napoleon 1 st will assign the Hôtel de Soubise to the Imperial Archives and the Hôtel de Rohan to the Imprimerie Nationale. Napoleon III installed the Museum of the History of France in the Hôtel de Soubise in 1867. It was assigned to the National Archives in 1927.
Nowadays, the Hotel de Soubise, as a museum, aims to present to the public the most important documents of our history, and presents a cultural program ( concerts, conferences), the Hôtel de Rohan hosts major historical exhibitions. These buildings should house the headquarters of the future Museum of the History of France, which could take the name of "Maison de l'Histoire de France".