Hôtel d’Assézat: a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture

Where did the money come from and why did it run out?

Should you find yourself strolling down the Rue de Metz in the historic heart of Toulouse, take a moment to walk through the monumental gateway to the Hôtel d’Assézat. It’s on the corner with the Rue de l’Écharpe, and once you pass beneath the archway, you will see that two sides of the courtyard are enclosed by three stories of grandiose Renaissance stonework and brickwork. Each window is framed by columns of the classical order; Doric on the ground floor, Ionic on the first and Corinthian at the top. Above the intersection between these two façades rises an octagonal red brick tower with two terraces and a small temple.
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When Pierre Assézat started building this extravagant home in 1555, he planned to surround the courtyard with four equally opulent façades. This raises two obvious questions: where did the money come from to build such a palatial residence, and why did it run out halfway through the project?

Turning woad into gold

The answer to the first question is simple: starting in 1460, Toulouse and the surrounding countryside enjoyed an extraordinary century of prosperity built on a plant called isatis tinctoria. In English, this natural source of blue dye was commonly known as woad, and in the south of France it was pastel.

Pierre Assézat was a lucky man. His two older brothers were rich pastel merchants, and when they died in swift succession in 1545 and 1546, he found himself head of a wealthy family at the age of twenty-five. Two years later he married into one of the leading families of Toulouse, and in 1551 he became one of the city’s consuls. In 1555 he decided to build a home to match his elevated social status and stratospheric wealth. Unfortunately, he soon discovered that possessing a great fortune is no guarantee of good fortune.

A spectacular crash

At its heart, the pastel trade was an agricultural business, and the weather always played a big role in determining the volume and quality of the crop in much the same way as it does with vines and wine. Starting in 1559, three years of capricious weather, widespread mistakes in processing the crop and speculation by buyers in Antwerp and London caused the market to crash. On top of that, a new competitor called indigo began to reach Europe in significant quantities.
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The ostentatious wealth of rich pastel merchants like Pierre Assézat had undoubtedly created envy, and some merchants saw indigo as an opportunity, a chance to break the monopoly of these rich and powerful dynasties.

Converting to Protestantism and back to Catholicism

Pierre Assézat was still grappling with these two pastel problems when, in 1562, he was hit by a third catastrophe: the Wars of Religion. Two or three years earlier he had converted to Protestantism, and on 11 May 1562, he and his fellow-believers in Toulouse seized control of public buildings and strategic points across the city. A week of fighting on the streets left 3,000 dead, and Pierre Assézat was forced to flee along with all the other Protestant consuls and their supporters. This violence did nothing to restore confidence in Toulouse and its pastel.

The following year, the Protestant consuls were reinstated but Pierre Assézat never felt safe in the city again. He had too many enemies, including Catholic members of his own family. Like many of the Protestants, he also encountered endless legal and administrative difficulties. At the end of September 1572, he gave up the struggle and renounced his faith. Like many of his fellow-believers, he was probably encouraged to take this step by the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre in Paris a month earlier.
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In return for re-embracing Catholicism, Pierre Assézat’s confiscated possessions were returned to him, but during the last ten years of his life he rarely came back to the Hôtel d’Assézat and instead spent most of his time in Bordeaux from where he continued to trade in pastel. 

The Bemberg Foundation
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Anyone can visit the interior of the Hôtel d’Assézat because a large part of this exceptional building is given over to a museum displaying the splendid art collection of a rich Argentinian, Georges Bemberg. This includes works by Tintoretto, Monet, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso.

I have enjoyed several visits to the Bemberg myself, but please note that at the time of writing, it is closed for refurbishment and is expected to re-open early in 2023.

A more detailed explanation of the pastel trade, past and present, can be found in my book Lauragais.

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