Hôtel Raoul, Private mansion in Le Marais, Paris, France.
The Hôtel Raoul stands on rue Beautreillis and displays an ornate exterior featuring iron balconies, an elaborate portal, and a decorative dolphin clock set into the stone. The building retains its original courtyard-garden layout that was innovative for early 17th-century Paris architecture.
Paul Ardier, a financial officer under King Henri IV, built this residence in 1604 as one of the first Paris mansions with a courtyard-garden layout. In the early 1800s, Jean-Louis Raoul, a file manufacturer from the Aveyron region, purchased the building and converted sections into workshops for his production.
The mansion represents the period when noble families established their Paris residences near the royal court in Le Marais district. The surviving decorative elements still show how wealthy Parisians of that era displayed their status and taste.
The portal and dolphin clock can be viewed from rue Beautreillis without entering private property, making it easy to see the exterior details from the street. The restored statue remains in its original location and is visible from the public right-of-way.
The mansion survived the French Revolution and subsequent upheavals when many similar noble homes in Paris were destroyed or completely rebuilt. Its preservation may have been linked to its conversion into a manufacturing space, which gave it practical value beyond decoration.
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