Montescot Hotel

Montescot Hotel is a building that dates back to the initial years of the 17th century. Since May 31, 1939, its façades and roofs have been classified as a historical monument.

In 1546, Jean de Montescot, Lord of Mainvilliers la Garenne, and Tax and Properties Administrator for the Duchy of Chartres, had a hotel built; his son, Claude, Notary and Secretary to the King, inherits it in 1575. The country is then in the middle of a civil war; the Holy League takes control of Chartres, and Claude de Montescot, who is faithful to the King, is forced to flee in 1588. His assets are seized and the hotel is occupied by leaders of the League. Conditions become favorable for Claude’s return when Henry IV takes over Chartres (1591); but his hotel has been devastated and he has to rebuild the destroyed structure. An inscription on the entablature’s frieze shows posterity when the reconstruction of the Montescot ancestral home, in which Claude was born, was finished: “ATAVITAM, MONTESCOTIORVM, QVA NATVS, DOMVM, CLAVD, RESTITVIT: 1614.” The pediments of the three doors with their winged spirits are authentic. The 17th-century painted ceiling in the room to the left on the main floor, which was used for wedding ceremonies, has been preserved; there, one notices the initials of Claude de Montescot and his bride, Magdeleine Havardin.

After Claude’s death, his son sells the hotel to the Ursuline Sisters of Saumur on October 6, 1625. That order, in Chartres, devotes itself to the education of poor young girls until 1759. In 1761, the Filles de la Providence [Daughters of Providence] occupy the hotel. They welcome female orphans, hold classes, monitor a workroom, and also watch over deaf and mute children. At first, they are spared during the Revolution; then, during 1792, their assets are handed over to the Bureau des Pauvres [Office of Services for the Poor].

On November 6, 1792, the Bureau des Pauvres, the hotel’s new owner, leases the same to the City of Chartres so that it can use it as a communal house, since the one on Rue des Changes was not adequate. A reception to honor the Emperor, Napoleon 1st, who came to Chartres, is held there: they put in a ballroom in the courtyard for the event!

The City finally acquires Hotel Montescot in 1824. The exterior façades are restored in 1857; one has sculpted, in error, on the escutcheon of the gate that is in the courtyard area  some coats of arms (hammered out under the revolution) belonging to Jean de Montescot, who was a royal sergeant during the 15th century, but they were not those of the Montescot’s who actually built the hotel! At the same time, the busts of Henry IV, Louis XIII, and Marie de Médicis (an indication of Claude de Montescot’s attachment to the royal family), which had disappeared, are replaced at the doors’ pediments.

During 1833, a museum is set up in the left wing; it opens to the public on May 18, 1834. Two additional wings will be built in 1871. Thus, in 1873, the library can occupy the new wing on the Place des Halles side. The following year, another wing is ready to be added to the museum. The ground floors are reserved for the expanded office space, and the laying out of council rooms and wedding chambers. Just a few years later, a new expansion plan is conceived. The Hall of the Justice of the Peace, two clerk’s offices, a conference room, and an addition to the library find a place there. Finally, with the purchase in 1900 of a building on Rue au Lin, the museum adds two more ground floor rooms; and in the main part, there are living quarters for the town hall’s Secretary General.

Before it was damaged on May 26, 1944, the museum had been handed over to the old bishopric and inaugurated on June 11, 1939; in this way it was able to survive. But the bombs and a fire destroyed almost the entire wing where one found the offices of the Justice of the Peace, and that of the library, with its treasures in the form of manuscripts, engravings, and books. A restoration policy is implemented after the war, and a new building, which can be accessed by going through the Place des Halles, was built right next to Hotel Montescot. It was inaugurated in 1960.