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| Hôtel de la Païva | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Location within Paris | |
| General information | |
| Type | Hôtel particulier |
| Architectural style | Italian Renaissance |
| Location | 25Avenue des Champs-Élysées,Paris, France |
| Current tenants | The Travellers Club |
| Construction started | 1856 |
| Completed | 1866 |
| Client | Esther Lachmann, known asLa Païva |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Pierre Manguin |
TheHôtel de la Païva ("Mansion of La Païva") is ahôtel particulier, a type of largetownhouse of France, that was built between 1856 and 1866, at 25Avenue des Champs-Élysées by thecourtesan Esther Lachmann, better known asLa Païva.[1] She was born in modest circumstances in the Moscowghetto, to Polish parents. By successive marriages, she became a soi-disant Portuguesemarchioness and a Prussian countess, this last marriage supplying the funds for thehôtel, at which she gave fabulous feasts. Since 1904, the house has been used by the Travellers Club of Paris, agentlemen's club that was all-male until the 2000s.[2]
La Païva had already acquired a luxurious mansion at 28 Place Saint-Georges in Paris but dreamt of building another on the Champs-Élysées, which she thought was the most beautiful avenue in the world. According to legend, in her youth, she had been pushed out of a cab by a hurried customer and slightly injured. She promised herself to build herself a house on the avenue where she fell. After her marriage to Albino Francisco de Araújo de Paiva, the self-styled Portuguese marquis de la Païva, she had the funds to do so.[3][4][5][6][2]
Once thehôtel was built, she received many notable people there, including theGoncourt brothers,Théophile Gautier,Léon Gambetta,Ernest Renan, andHippolyte Taine. In 1877, suspected of espionage, La Païva and her husband, Prussian multimillionaire CountGuido Henckel von Donnersmarck, whom she had married in 1871, left France and withdrew to Silesia, where she died in 1884.
The double entrance to the courtyard of thehôtel has been preserved: one door was for the entry of cabs and the second for their exit, avoiding the need to turn around. The courtyard has been replaced by commercial establishments: first a financial exchange office, and later a restaurant.
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La Païva commissioned architectPierre Manguin to build thehôtel inItalian Renaissance style.[1] He worked with the sculptorsLéon Cugnot,Eugène Delaplanche,Eugène Legrain,Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, andJules Dalou.[7] There is a Ceiling byPaul Baudry.
During construction of thehôtel, Augustin Scholl said to those who asked about the progress of the work, "The construction is well underway: just ask the sidewalk."[8]
Thehôtel is especially famous for its beautiful yellow onyx staircase, probably unique in the world. The stairs inspired the contemporary witticism by the playwrightFrançois Ponsard, adapted fromPhèdre,"Ainsi que la vertu, le vice a ses degrés", meaning "Like virtue, vice has its degrees".Degrés means both steps in a staircase and levels of a hierarchy.[9][10]
The Napoleon III-style bathtub was sculpted by Donnadieu from a block of yellow onyx (1.85 m - 900 kg). This material, called onyx-marble, was found in a Roman quarry and rediscovered in 1849 near Oran (Algeria) by Delmonte. This type of onyx was used at the time of Napoleon III for the decoration of only the most prestigious buildings. At the Universal Exhibition of 1867, Donnadieu received a distinction for "onyx marbles designed with the elegance which is the supreme attribute of Parisian workers" (from "Algeria to the Universal Exhibition in Paris, 1867" O . McCarthy). La Paîva is said to have taken baths of milk, lime-blossom, and even champagne.[11]
Another tub in silver was equipped with three taps, the third being used for milk or champagne.[12]
