This seventeenth-century building in the fourth arrondissement at the corner of Quai des Célestins and Rue du Petit-Musc is one of the 1,823 buildings in Paris that are listed as Historical Monuments, which is intended to protect them from being demolished or grossly changed.
The word Hôtel is used here in the old sense, meaning a large private mansion. This one is called Hôtel Fieubet after its first owner, Gaspard de Fieubet.
Decorations on the side facing Rue du Petit-Musc
The building is notable for its many decorations, such as garlands, trophies, torches, draperies, caryatids, atlases and gargoyles, some of which may have been added in the nineteenth century.
Today the building is used as a school, the École Massillon, which has been located here since 1877.
Atlases and decorations on the side facing Quai des Célestins
Here the two atlases, who (unusually) have no arms, seem to be supporting parts of the façade with their heads. (Female figures who do this are called caryatids.)
Hôtel Fieubet and the next-door apartment building on Quai des Célestins
Location and aerial view on monumentum.fr.
My photos in this post are from 2014. I revised the text in 2020.
See more posts on the 4th arrondissement of Paris.
Beautiful building – I love the Atlases and the carvings around the windows!
Sometimes I think Paris must be the world capital of atlases and especially their female counterparts, the caryatids.
The farthest we’ve gotten on foot in that area is rue des Jardins where we went to find some of the remains of the wall around Paris built by Philip II Augustus from 1190 to around 1215. There is a large piece of the wall there and a nice view of the Fontaine du Lycée Charlemagne at the end. Looming over it is the huge dome of Eglise Saint-Paul Saint-Louis on rue Saint-Antoine that was our next stop.
Yes, I remember that wall. Paul Smith of VT showed it to us on a tour he led, during the big Paris VT meeting in 2011.
Those decorations are amazing.
how amazing
Architecture brought me to Paris first and then history. Eternal Paris!