Hôtel Saint-Léonard

The Saint-Leonard hotel is a mansion in the city of La Falaise. It is one of the few buildings to resist the bombing of 1944. It was commissioned in 1786 by Richard Louis Nicolas the Vallois Marquis de Saint-Leonard. The architect Nicolas Gondouin d'Argentan, the most famous of the region, was solicited and presented several projects. The plan adopted was the one we know today. Construction began in 1787 on the foundations of an old seigniorial dwelling built on the ramparts of Falaise. This medieval house acquired by the marquis in 1740 was demolished, only the foundations and a cellar remain. The hotel was built on medieval foundations and an old tower allowed the architect to create the characteristic circular feature of the hotel. The construction was slowed down by the revolution of 1789 and the family coat of arms on the fronton of the hotel was burned by the revolutionaries. The work ended in 1797.

It is a state hotel where its owner the Marquis de Saint-Léonard receives in the city the aristocracy and Parisian who has many castles in the Orne and Calvados, art of living of the late eighteenth century where he It is fashionable to receive in town rather than in his castle in the country. The economic boom experienced by Falaise and Guibray since the Middle Ages allowed the wealthy aristocratic families to build large homes and mansions, the city of Falaise had more than 200 before the 1940 war.