The Hôtel de Guitry-Lauzun opposite the castle, a residence that disappeared nine years after its construction

From 1670 and 1679, two private mansions built by men close to Louis XIV faced the Palace of Versailles. Recognizable by their Italian domes and freely inspired by the architecture of Louis Le Vau, they influenced the architecture of the Royal Stables of Versailles, which would replace them after their destruction.

By Pierre-Xavier Hans, chief curator at the Palace of Versailles

On February 5, 1670, Antonin Nompar de Caumont, Count of Lauzun, captain of His Majesty's bodyguards, and Guy de Chaumont, Marquis de Guitry, grand master of the wardrobe, two great officers close to Louis XIV passed by power of attorney with the entrepreneur Alexandre Delespine for the construction of “a hotel building opposite the Palace of Versailles” (1). The Count of Lauzun and the Marquis of Guitry, friends, intend to share this hotel whose design belongs to the architect Thomas Gobert as attested by the contract: “All following the plans, profiles and elevations made by Gobert. » The deal was concluded for the sum of 54,000 pounds.

In the spirit of Rome

In Louis XIV, we guess the actual sponsor. The monarch intends to create a city in dialogue with his palace. From 1664, the three avenues with their crow's feet layout converged towards the castle, and from the following year hotels were built flanking the forecourt (2). The view by Pierre Patel painted in 1668 reveals the pavilion layout designed by Louis Le Vau (3). Everything accelerated in 1669 with the construction of the new Château, which transformed Versailles into a real place of residence. The land enclosed by the three main avenues was granted to courtiers with royal favor. In the center of the great axial breakthrough rise four magnificent hotels, real little palaces, oriented towards the castle. Gobert was entrusted with the task of drawing two for the truncated angles, delimited by the avenues that form the crow's feet, that is to say, the most beautiful locations facing the castle.

On these two plots bordering the Place d'Armes between the avenues of Saint-Cloud and de Paris stood between 1670 and 1679 the Hôtel de Guitry-Lauzun, on the site of the Grande Écurie, as well as the Hôtel de Noailles, on the plot between avenues de Sceaux and avenues de Paris at the location of the Petite Écurie. Anne, Duke of Noailles (1615-1678) held the office of captain of the first company of the king's bodyguards. The two identical domed hotels are executed according to the designs of Thomas Gobert. Behind stood the hotels of Chaulnes to the north and Bellefonds to the south, exactly symmetrical, with terraced roofs built to the plans of Jules Hardouin-Mansart at the same time (4).

A plan of the town, from around 1670, shows the hotels of Guitry-Lauzun and Noailles preceded by a square courtyard surrounded on three sides by a moat (5) and flanked by small outbuildings built at the back of the service courtyard (6).

The two hotels stand out above all for their dome. Gobert keeps in mind the layout of the Piazza del Popolo at the entrance to Rome. Two symmetrical domed churches are erected at the intersection of the avenues also tracing a crow's feet.

Sophisticated architecture

Two views by Adam Pérelle and Nicolas de Poilly around 1675 show the city-side elevation of the hotels (7), a plan of the hotel in 1679 (8) as well as a drawing of the elevation of the Hôtel de Noailles on the castle side (9), it is possible to rediscover this very sophisticated architecture, while not ignoring the limits of these documents, what they can convey that is approximate or even inaccurate ( 10).

Equipped with a raised ground floor, the dwelling includes on the courtyard side towards the castle a central body with a front body and at the rear on the garden side on the town side a central body with a half rotunda. This central body is flanked by two wings of three bays. The residence is similar to the type of pleasure house built on the edge of a town.

We find the Versailles part of the double dwelling with the symmetry of two apartments on each side of the large living room.

The square vestibule and the large circular living room define the central axis. The vestibule separating the two circular dining rooms and the large living room separating two rectangular anterooms, arranged in the longitudinal direction, form the central part, i.e. six rooms. The wings accommodate two apartments, located in a row on either side of the large living room to create the major transverse axis, and comprising according to tradition: the anteroom, the bedroom, the study, and the wardrobe, as in the apartments parade ground of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, work of Louis Le Vau. We observe the privileged communication between the two antechambers and the large living room provided by columns to form a reception space of three rooms in the style of a ceremonial gallery.

The city-side elevation of the two hotels known from the prints shows the axial span of the rotunda solemnized by a superimposed order supporting a triangular pediment leaning against the drum of the dome. The estimate describes a “hard stone support to serve as decoration and support for the dome…”.

The estimate mentions on the castle side the “portico with capitals, friezes and cornices…”. The elevation of the Hôtel de Noailles allows us to appreciate the beautiful piece of architecture that constitutes the slightly projecting front of three bays, with pilasters and two columns (11).

Gobert designed two faces with very different volumes: towards the castle, he established a horizontal architectural composition with a broken roof and Doric peristyle as a motif. The wings represented in the view of the Hôtel de Noailles show arched bays separated by trumeaux with projecting tables, a molding reigning at the level of the transoms and the archivolts, discs adorning the spandrels. On the city side, the vision of the dome prevails. The rotunda is part of a sober architectural composition with a single-sided roof. The boss chains and bands respond to the constructive techniques of the time.

In compliance with the instructions

The architectural constraints had been set by the King's Superintendence of Buildings: the elevation was limited to one floor and the facades were bricked. The estimate of February 5, 1670, repeatedly uses the expression revealing in itself all the architectural harmony of the surroundings of the Palace of Versailles: “The entablatures and plains […] in the shape of stone […] and the tables in the shape of brick. » The rubble walls coated with plaster were decorated with relief tables painted with red ocher, the joints filled with white plaster. The facade frames were treated yellow.

On the castle side, at the top of the steps you enter the vestibule passing between two columns, the open room. There is side access to the two “dining rooms”, rooms tiled with large terracotta tiles and decorated with pilasters and cornices. Beyond, the Italian-style living room, a room paved with Liais stone and black Caen stone, opens onto the garden, on the town side, through two bay registers. Ionic pilasters decorate the first level of the living room “crowned with an architrave cornice which will project sufficiently for the corridor or balcony and will serve for communication between the two apartments, the pilasters and front of which will be of plaster and properly worked”. This passage, approximately 80 cm wide, equipped with an “iron balustrade”, serves as a connection between the two high apartments. Above the second order rises the dome vault which ends with the opening of the lantern. The theme of the Italian living room introduced in France by Louis Le Vau inspired the architects.

To facilitate internal circulation, the two ground floor apartments are doubled on the city side by a corridor which is accessed via a side entrance. They lead to the two staircases cleverly arranged in the lost space between the rectangular anteroom and the circular dining room. The estimate provides for stairs with a beautiful wooden handrail with balusters. The rooms on the ground floor each benefit from plaster paneling topped with a cornice as well as a fireplace with an oak frame.

The building benefits from all the comforts, wardrobes with toilets, and convenience places equipped with carpentry window seats. The estimate indicates the construction of two lower courtyards surrounding the hotel, each consisting of a small main building connecting two pavilions and including a kitchen, pantry, and pantry. We then find the carriage houses, the stables designed to accommodate around fifteen horses, and the carriage entrance opening onto the avenue.

Acquisition by the king

Now the main residence of the sovereign, the castle, and the town were transformed and from 1679 the Royal Stables were built on the site of the two Gobert hotels (12). Louis XIV purchased the two hotels, which he then considered keeping. (fig 5). Plans show their integration into the heart of the new stables. Finally, the difference in scale of the hotels led to them being abandoned to build the impressive stables of Jules Hardouin-Mansart (13). As early as February 1679, there was talk of destroying Gobert's work, which was done the same year (14). The two residences disappeared nine years after their construction.

We note the payment on July 14, 1680, of 420 pounds “to Jacquier for rubble car for the demolition of the Hôtel de Guitry” (15) We know that on August 22, 1702, Lauzun received in compensation the sum of 77,137 pounds for half of the house he occupied in the center of the Great Stable (16).

For Louis XIV, domes were an integral part of the attributes of a glorious city. A prestigious architecture, the Guitry-Lauzun Hotel demonstrates great refinement.

The exterior elevations of the hotel reflect quite remarkably the plan conceived above all as a harmonious design. The articulation of the hotel owes a lot to the art of Louis Le Vau – we think of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte – and this achievement simultaneously exposes the new architectural taste which is expressed through the horizontality of the architecture, the use of the ancient order to adorn the facades or even the distribution and diversification of interior space. The two sponsors will never occupy their home.

The end of the work

In 1670, everything seemed to succeed for the Count of Lauzun (1633-1723), aged thirty-seven, captain of the bodyguards, favorite of the king, leading his career magnificently and far from suspecting that in February 1670, twenty-one months separated him from his disgrace.

At that moment Mademoiselle de Montpensier, the Great Mademoiselle, developed a great passion for him. The royal refusal of marriage occurred in December 1670 (17) but Lauzun, in compensation, benefited on January 9, 1671, from the “grand entries” and on March 30, 1671, from the government of Berry (18).

In the fall of 1671, Lauzun wanted to obtain the post of colonel of the French Guards regiment (19). Because of his misconduct (20), he was arrested on the evening of November 25, 1671, at the Château de Saint-Germain and imprisoned in Pignerol on December 12, which he did not leave, pardoned, until eleven years later on April 22, 1681. Louis XIV will name him Duke on April 1, 1692 (21). The Marquis de Guitry (1630? - 1672) disappeared more than six months after the arrest of his friend. Louis XIV having created in his favor the office of grand master of the wardrobe by provisions of November 26, 1669 (22), the oath was taken on February 7, 1670, two days after the signing of the hotel contract (23). Guitry was killed at the start of the Dutch War, on June 12, 1672, during the crossing of the Rhine at the Ford of Tolhuis (24). The hotel was completed when he died.

It is to the great talent of the architect Thomas Gobert (1638-1708) that we owe the architectural success of these two Versailles domed hotels theatrically accompanying the castle.

Architect to the king, Thomas Gobert, builder of luxurious hotels in Paris, works alongside Antoine Le Pautre in Saint-Cloud for Monsieur. He built the Trianon de Saint-Cloud for him from September 1670 and Colbert named him among the best architects to design a large new castle at Versailles, the subject of a competition organized in 1669. At the same time, he works as an engineer, Colbert entrusting him with the execution of the capture of rainwater for the water supply of the Palace of Versailles. Behind this character who works in the background, we discover an enlightened mind. Architect, engineer, and inventor, Thomas Gobert also distinguished himself as a sculptor (25).

Between 1679 and 1683, Jules Hardouin-Mansart built the Versailles Stables. If the idea of retaining the hotels as the main ornament of this new monumental ensemble was quickly dismissed (26), the Stables as they exist, take from the castle side elevation of the hotels designed by Gobert, the horizontal character of the architecture, the recurring theme of arcades and first of all that of the front part of the pedimented facade.