Particularly Perpignan….

Hidden Gems in Perpignan: Discover the City’s Secret Hôtels Particuliers….with Henry Shaftoe

Perpignan is particularly well endowed with ‘hotels particuliers’

No, we are not talking Holiday Inns and Novotels, but the magnificent private mansions of well-to-do families constructed between the 16th and 19th centuries. It is estimated that over 100 of these buildings have survived in the historic core of Perpignan, mostly tucked away discretely behind anonymous frontages. Once you know the giveaway signs (large double doors, surmounted by a shallow arched stone lintel over an opening big enough to allow the entry of a coach and horses),you will spot them almost everywhere in the old city.

A City Built on Trade

Perpignan’s hôtels particuliers are reminders of a time when the city was an important commercial centre linking the Iberian Peninsula with the rest of Europe.

Successful merchants, wine traders, textile manufacturers and landowners built impressive residences that reflected both their wealth and their social standing. While many were altered over the centuries, they remain one of the city’s most distinctive architectural treasures.

Start at Casa Xanxo

It all started with the Casa Xanxo (8 rue de la Main de Fer), built around 1500 by a wealthy merchant. If you want to find out more about these hotels particuliers, this is a good starting point, as the Casa Xanxo is open to the public, is free to enter and has several rooms exhibiting the history of Perpignan.

Hidden Courtyards and Secret Gardens

The majority of these hotels particuliers have been converted into private apartments so are not accessible to the public,

Nevertheless, curious walkers can still glimpse a surprising number of internal courtyards tucked away behind imposing doorways. Some have become cafés, restaurants or cultural venues, while others reveal beautiful staircases, arcades and stonework if you happen to catch the gates open.

One of the pleasures of exploring Perpignan is never quite knowing what might be hidden behind the next doorway.

The rather gloomy, but truly ancient, rue des Abreuvoirs (tucked away between Castillet and the cathedral) apparently has the highest concentration of hotels particuliers in the city, including one where Georges Sand and Frederick Chopin stayed before eloping to Majorca!

Museums Behind Mansion Walls

The Natural History Museum (12 rue Fontaine-Neuve) is a perfectly preserved ‘Hotel Particulier’, free to enter with the benefit of a mummified resident (from Egypt, not from Perpignan!) The art museum Hyacinthe Rigaud (2 rue Mailly) consists of two ‘Hotels Particuliers’ knocked into one, and combines remarkable architecture with one of the region’s finest art collections.

And the crowning glory has to be Hotel Pams, (18 rue Emile Zola – free entry) a gorgeously over-the-top former dwelling of the rich cigarette paper making family, Bardou Job. As well as the dwelling, replete with delightfully kitsch and slightly risqué murals, you can visit the raised tropical garden at the back and part of the former cigarette paper factory, now used for modern art exhibitions.

Look Up!

The beauty of hôtel particulier spotting is that it costs nothing.

So next time you are doing nothing in particular in Perpignan, slow down, look up, and pay attention to those grand wooden doors and discreet façades.

Behind many of them lies a hidden world of courtyards, galleries, gardens and architectural treasures that tell the story of the city’s prosperous past.

 I think you will be particularly impressed !