|
During the regency of Marie de' Medici many hôtels were put up in Paris, particularly in the Marais of which the finest surviving examples are the Hôtel de Chalon-Luxembourg and the Hôtel de Sully.
The Hôtel de Sully, in the rue Saint-Antoine, was begun in 1625 possibly to the design of Jean Androuet du Cerceau, for a rich financier, Mesme Gallet. In 1634 it was acquired by Sully, the minister of Henry IV. It has been brilliantly restored and now gives a better impression than any other surviving building of what a great Paris hôtel of the 1620s must have look like.
The plan follows the traditional form with a central corps-de-logis flanked by wings leading to pavilions. If the plan is traditional, the external decoration is novel. The façades on the court are ornamented with allegorical figures in niches. All the windows are covered with sculptured friezes and pediments containing masks or shells. The dormers are also of unusually elaborate form with carved scrolls at the sides and friezes and masks above them.
The photo shows the façade facing the rue Saint-Antoine.
| 
