Hôtel de Lesdiguières, Heritage mansion in central Grenoble, France

The Hôtel de Lesdiguières stands on rue Hector-Berlioz facing the Jardin de Ville, a group of adjoining buildings from different periods arranged around small courtyards and passages. Its steep dark slate roofs and dormer windows contrast with the old town's ochre Roman tiles. A round corner tower, its base a 3rd-century Gallo-Roman wall of Cularo, rises with a pale yellow ashlar upper stage pierced by two small square windows. The Créqui wing, added in 1627, 1631 and 1640, carries a balcony and a roof clock.

François de Bonne, Lieutenant-General of Dauphiné, had architect Pierre La Cuisse build his urban residence from 1602 on the site of a dependency of the Palais delphinal, the Trésorerie. The new facade replaced the line of the Roman wall, destroyed in 1596, and kept a tower whose base dates from the 3rd-century enclosure of Cularo. From 1683 the building housed the Intendants of Dauphiné; the city bought it in 1719 for 150,000 livres and installed its town hall there until 1967.

The building's name comes from François de Bonne, Duke of Lesdiguières, who had it built from 1602. Since 2006 it has housed the Maison de l'international, which promotes Grenoble abroad; before that, from 1970, it held the Stendhal museum and then a neighbourhood library.

The building remains open throughout the year for visitors to explore its classical rooms and exhibitions. Tram lines A and B serve the area, with the closest stop at Hubert Dubedout station.

The round corner tower predates the mansion: its base is a 3rd-century Gallo-Roman remnant of the Cularo city wall. Dauphin Humbert II raised it by 5 to 6 metres, and Lesdiguières kept it when he built his residence in 1602.