Hôtel de Vogüé

The full story

The Hôtel de Vogüé tells the story of a rising social group. After Burgundy was joined to the kingdom in 1477, Dijon was a provincial capital, the seat of the Estates of Burgundy and of the sovereign courts, including the Parliament. The magistrates of these courts, nicknamed the ‘robins’ and belonging to the nobility of the robe, built themselves large residences: more than a hundred private mansions still survive. Étienne Bouhier, a member of the Parliament and a great art lover, had this one begun in 1614. His family, which held high offices, built or remodelled many mansions in Dijon. The national database of historic monuments, for its part, mentions building campaigns in 1607 and 1635.

Built between courtyard and garden, the most prestigious layout, inspired by Parisian models, the mansion influenced all private architecture in the town through its plan, the regularity of its openings and its refined decoration close to the Italian Renaissance. For the City, it also heralds the classicism that emerged at the turn of the 17th century. On the street side, a porch punctuated with bossage, projecting stones, opens onto a courtyard with a sculpted portico. The roofs have been covered with glazed tiles from the start: when they were restored in 1963, the diamond pattern was slightly altered, but the four-colour composition was kept.

Inside, the Guards’ Room, once a reception room, keeps a French-style ceiling, with exposed beams, whose decoration frames landscapes and country scenes. Its large fireplace of 1614 stands out for its carvings and its inlays of multicoloured marble. The next room, panelled from floor to ceiling, has a fireplace showing the abduction of Proserpina, an episode from ancient mythology.

The house then changed: it was enlarged in 1690 and its gateway was opened in 1717. It passed by marriage to the Vogüé family, in 1766 according to the tourist office, and kept their name. Listed as a historic monument on 5 January 1911, it now houses the City’s human resources department. It stands at 8 Rue de la Chouette, behind the east end of the church of Notre-Dame.