Hôtel Arnaud

Hôtel Arnaud stands in Paris’s Marais district, in the fourth arrondissement, beside the Place des Vosges. This historic hôtel particulier presents a central building with two wings, each containing ten windows facing courtyards. The eastern Tournelles wing preserves early seventeenth-century stone and timber construction. A vaulted gallery, classical façades and roofs give the complex its architectural character.

Isaac Arnauld began construction after acquiring the land in June 1605. The property later passed to the Marshal of Lavardin and Prince Louis de Rohan. The Rohan family retained it until 1782, while nineteenth-century renovations preserved the interior’s classical style. One of Paris’s last Louis-Philippe fountains still stands within the building.

Victor Hugo lived here from 1832 to 1848 and wrote Ruy Blas during that period. The building later became the Victor Hugo Museum, inaugurated in 1903. Its façade, vaulted gallery and roofs received historical-monument classification in 1954. The Tournelles wing remains the clearest physical trace of the early seventeenth century.