From the street, the residence stands out for its high slate roofs, which rise above the plot’s enclosing walls, which feature two oculi. A monumental gateway marks the entrance: an arched carriage entrance featuring rusticated stone blocks adorned with a bas-relief and overlooked by a carved monster head as the keystone. Its wrought-iron gate, now electric, offers a glimpse of the courtyard. Once through the gateway, you find yourself in the paved court of honour, which reveals a main classically designed edifice built in 1648, the very year of the Treaties of Westphalia. True to the model of a residence set between a courtyard and a garden, it is extended on one side by a wing at a right angle by the street. The whiteness of the walls, brought out by limestone window surrounds, cornices and quoins, makes the elevations bright. A high slate roof with long mansard slopes, underlined with a stone cornice, features arched-pediment dormers. On both the courtyard side and the garden side facing west, tall small-paned windows give the elevations an even rhythm. The house does not have so many street-facing windows. Seven stone steps lead up to a double glazed door where the edifice’s two sections meet. The ground floor, with a ceiling height of over four metres, brings together the reception rooms around an entrance hall from where a suspended staircase, dating back to the French Restoration period, leads upstairs. The upstairs floors have a slightly lower ceiling height, of around 3.40 metres, and house lounges and offices, extending up to a loft space where exposed oak roof beams extend above a vast room with a floor area of around 95m². Next, there are offices and a self-contained apartment. The edifice’s total floor area reaches 560m², divided into 15 rooms.

The residence

Each historical era has left its mark here without wiping out the previous one. To the 17th-century layout were added the marble and plasterwork of the following century, then the staircase and a fireplace dating back to the French Restoration period. Doors with large panels, wrought-iron window catches and indoor shutters have stood the test of time and still stand out beside tall windows. It is on the ground floor that the decor is truly remarkable. Yet upstairs, panelled woodwork and a carved alcove evoke the private apartments of yesteryear. In recent years, the edifice has been converted into offices and has undergone extensive renovation work.

The ground floor
Black-and-white chequered flooring extends at the foot of a suspended oak staircase, which rises in a spiral with cast-iron balusters. On one side, there is a panelled dining room with a large semicircular stove niche, framed between fluted pilasters and stucco spandrels. Next, there are two adjoining lounges with oak chevron parquet, bathed in natural light from tall windows. In the first lounge, there is a whitened French Restoration period fireplace beneath a gilded trumeau panel, framed between two double doors. The second lounge is cosier. It is adorned with plasterwork that features trophies of arms and musical instruments, centred around an 18th-century red veined marble fireplace with a rococo-style curve. The wing on the other side is more functional and houses a lift, a lavatory and two offices.

The first floor
The grand staircase leads up to a landing, which connects to both sections. In the main section, there is a spacious lounge, filled with natural light from two sides. It has kept its large-framed panelling, a reminder of its former use as a reception room. It now houses a kitchen. The adjoining room, doubtless a former bedroom, now converted into a meeting room, has kept a marble fireplace and a sculpted alcove. In the wing at a right angle to the main section, a wooden spiral staircase leads up to the roof space. There is also a lavatory and two offices further along. Suspended ceilings and sprung wood flooring, fitted when the place was converted into offices, could be removed to restore the original interior.

The second floor
Up here, beneath the long, mansard slopes of the roof, now insulated, you can see the house’s framework. Oak trusses and rafters, assembled in the traditional style of framing carpenters of yesteryear, extend above a large room with a floor area of around 95m², a veritable nave of timber, filled with natural light from arched dormers on three sides. Today, this space is used as a meeting room. It is followed by several offices, as well as a separate apartment with sloping attic ceilings, a kitchen and a large room filled with natural light.

The basement
A trapdoor in the courtyard leads down to the house’s underground space, which is made up of three vaulted stone cellars with earthen floors and a 2.30-metre ceiling height up to the vault. There is a total floor area of around 70m² down here. One of the cellars is a boiler room. Another one is used to store wine bottles, as is customary in the local Champagne region.

The courtyard and garden

The paved court of honour has space for five vehicles to be parked in it. On the facade, a lion mascaron watches down over a wall fountain and its stone basin, not far from an oval niche and basement windows with wrought-iron grates featuring scrollwork. Near the gate, a cast-iron plaque bearing a coat of arms commemorates the owners who originally commissioned the building. On the other side of the edifice, the garden extends westwards. Enclosed with walls, this garden is edged with a row of linden trees pruned into shapes reminiscent of old town gardens. A path crosses the lawn to a terrace sheltered by a pergola. A small gate leads to the street on this side, just a stone’s throw from the beautiful Parc du Jard riverside public park.