Hôtel du Vieux-Raisin, Renaissance private mansion in Toulouse, France

The Hôtel du Vieux-Raisin is a private mansion in Toulouse blending Gothic and Renaissance architectural styles in its design. The stone carvings frame the windows with detailed sculpted figures showing skilled craftsmanship and anatomical knowledge.

Built from 1515 for Béringuier Maynier, a law professor and capitoul of 1515–1516, on the site of a 15th-century house whose gargoyles survive above Rue José Félix. Magistrate Jean Burnet, owner from 1547 to 1577, squared the courtyard and closed it with a Doric portico modelled on the loggia of the Hôtel d'Assézat. Bishop Pierre de Lancrau, owner from 1580 to 1591, raised the great staircase tower and added the telamon windows. The hôtel was listed as a monument historique in 1889.

The name comes from a tavern on the street whose sign showed a bunch of grapes, hence Vieux-Raisin. The house is also called hôtel Maynier and hôtel de Lasbordes. In the courtyard, the carved telamon windows show figures straining under the entablatures, and the ground-floor hybrid figures with lion feet vary in anatomy and expression.

The building stands at the corner of Rue Ozenne and Rue du Languedoc, and the courtyard is reached through the arched passage in the brick wall, closed by a black metal fence. The residence is private, so visitors view the courtyard and the sculpted windows from the street and the passage. Look for the blue sign beside the archway.

Inside the mansion stands a grand fireplace decorated with humanist symbols and medallions displaying the original owner's coat of arms. This type of personalized decoration reflected both wealth and the owner's intellectual status during the Renaissance period.