Hôtel de Tresmes

On the Place des Vosges in the Marais stands the Hôtel de Tresmes, a grand private townhouse of the early seventeenth century. It sits in the third arrondissement, on one of the oldest planned squares in Paris.

In sixteen thirty Bernard Potier, seigneur of Blérancourt, bought the house with his wife Charlotte de Vieuxpont. The couple commissioned the architect François Mansart, who reshaped the building between sixteen forty-four and sixteen forty-five. He doubled the depth of the rear façade and added two new wings around the courtyard. Later changes reached the courtyard buildings in the nineteenth century. Through all of it, the house has held the protection of a monument historique since November nineteen fifty-six.

The square itself began life as the Place Royale and was completed in sixteen twelve. Red brick fronts with white stone quoins and steep slate roofs give it the uniform face it is famed for. The townhouse and its neighbouring hôtels particuliers stand within that frame. At the centre, the Square Louis XIII serves as a public park, with fountains and an equestrian statue of Louis XIII.