Hôtel de Chimay

The Hôtel de Chimay is situated in the 6th arrondissement of Paris of Paris in France. It is located at 17 quai Malaquais. Once an Hôtel particulier, since 1883, it has been an extension of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, a distinguished National School of Fine Arts.

The quai Malaquais in Paris was constructed around 1552. The purpose of it was to protect the Pré-aux-Clercs area from floods which it was prone to. From 1585, it was given the name Malaquais.

This hôtel was constructed in 1635 by the entrepreneurs Simon Delespine (d.1680), Martial Baret and Jean Péronne for Macé I Bertrand de La Bazinière, a royal treasurer.

Between 1653 and 1658, the hôtel was modified to the designs of the famous François Mansart. Some of the interior work was carried out by Charles Le Brun, then the protégé of Nicolas Fouquet. It was around 1658, that the building was the subject of an engraving by the architect Jean Marot.

During 1665, the hôtel was the home of Henrietta Maria of France, former queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland, Queen Mother of England, Scotland and Ireland, widow of Charles I, mother of Charles II and James II, sister of Louis XIII, aunt of Louis XIV and mother of the Duchess of Orléans. She later moved out to the Château de Colombes where she died in 1669.

In 1681, the hôtel was purchased by Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, the Duke of Bouillon. His wife, Marie Anne Mancini (niece of Cardinal Mazarin) hosted a famous salon at the hôtel where she died in 1714 having lived there since the Duke of Bouillon had bought it. Jean de La Fontaine, a friend of the duchesse de Bouillon, was a visitor. Other famous people of the time that went were Madame de Sévigné, Madame de La Fayette, Pierre Corneille and Molière.

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