Hôtel de Than, Renaissance private mansion in Caen, France

The Hôtel de Than is an early Renaissance mansion in Caen with skillfully carved stonework on its facade and Italian-influenced roof dormers. The building blends Gothic elements with new Renaissance design principles, showing the transitional style of that era.

The building was constructed in the early 1500s for Thomas Morel, a local nobleman with estates in Normandy. During World War II, it suffered heavy damage from bombing and fires during the Battle of Caen, but was gradually restored afterward.

The mansion takes its name from Thaon, the Bessin lordship of Thomas Morel, who had it built around 1527. A local legend says a small carved figure at the north corner, a woman with her skirt raised, was the architect's mocking reply to the rival who built the Hôtel d'Escoville; the dates of that building (1533–1540) make the story impossible.

The building sits on a quiet side street and is viewable from the outside, with Renaissance details clearly visible from street level. Visitors should know that it now houses apartments and retail space, so interior access is not available.

Abel Vautier turned the mansion into a private museum open to visitors, filling it with Etruscan and Egyptian antiquities, coins, medals, paintings, weapons and ornithological collections. After his death in 1863 the collection was dispersed, prompting Célestin Hippeau to lament in the Moniteur du Calvados the loss of treasures amassed over a lifetime.