Hotel D'Assezat

The Bemberg Foundation, the city's principal art gallery, is housed in Toulouse, France's Hôtel d'Assézat, a 16th-century urban palace designed in the French Renaissance style.


Nicolas Bachelier, a well-known Toulouse wood merchant at the time, is thought to have designed the hotel for Pierre d'Assézat. One of the earliest examples of French classicism, it is a stunning example of southern France's Renaissance palace architecture, using Toulouse-specific brick and ornately decorating the courtyard's cour d'honneur under the influence of both classicism and Italian Mannerism.


Classical facades:

The corner staircase pavilion was constructed at the same time as the main L-shaped building. The façades' Ionic, Corinthian, and Doric architectural styles, which include twin columns that develop regularly over three stories, were modeled after famous classical structures like the Coliseum. The most complex ancient expression is used to meticulously treat the capitals systematically.


The Doric on the bottom level, for instance, refers to its most elaborately decorated variant, that of the Basilica Aemilia, through Serlio or Labacco. The Lescot facade of the square yard of the Louvre Palace, to which it is occasionally likened, is not directly comparable to the composition of the hotel's façade.


The passageway:

The passageway in the courtyard has arches adorned with diamond-shaped stone. They are supported by enormous scrolled consoles with hideous masks of various designs adorning the fronts. The rolls of the scrolls produce plant pods and cloves on the side. Each console is supported by a lion foot that is perched on a pilaster part that is topped with a gorgeous rose beneath.


By fusing the kingdoms of plants, minerals, and animals, these consoles demonstrate the manneristic aesthetic of the odd and the association of opposites. Contemporaries admired these elegant motifs, which were emphasized by the polychrome interplay and relief of the corridor, and they served as an inspiration for decorations on other structures, including Hôtel de Massas and Laréole Castle.


The staircase:

The broad, straight stairway is located in a pavilion that extends into the courtyard. On the landings, the architectural orders are repeated. A magnificent manly figure may be seen on the first-floor. This word was destined to carry the weight of the console while looking like a half-man, half-pilaster with a grimace on his face and his hands gripping a cushion placed on his head to lessen the pain.


This pattern is amusing due to the combination of opposites, such as the strained muscles and the comfortable cushion, even if it is a symbol of wisdom in that it references to mythology, Atlas, and Hercules.

  • imageDuration Required
    3 hours

Address of Hotel D'Assezat

Place d'Assisat, Toulouse, France

Opening & Closing time of Hotel D'Assezat

  • Monday
    Closed
  • Tuesday
    10:00-18:00
  • Wednesday
    10:00-18:00
  • Thursday
    10:00-18:00
  • Friday
    10:00-18:00
  • Saturday
    10:00-18:00
  • Sunday
    10:00-18:00

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