The
Hôtel de Massa is located at 38
rue du Faubourg Saint Jacques in the
14th arrondissement of Paris.
This 18th-century hôtel particulier was originally located on the avenue des Champs-Élysées and was moved in 1929 to its present location, in a park beside the gardens of the Paris Observatory. Classified as a historical monument, it has since been occupied by the Société des gens de lettres.
The neoclassical hotel was built between 1777 to 1778 by architect Jean-Baptiste Le Boursier for Thiroux de Montsauge, financial receiver and minister of finance.
At the time, the location selected lay on the "trail" of the Champs-Elysées but sits now at the intersection of rue La Boétie and avenue des Champs-Elysées. The hôtel was the setting of numerous fêtes galantes and, notably, the romances of Charles, count d'Artois and brother of Louis XVI, and of the duke de Richelieu, Emmanuel Duplessis de Richelieu-Fronsac.
In 1870, the duke of Massa, watching the German troops march on the Champs-Elysées, closed the hotel's blinds and swore not to reopen them before the day of revenge it would be his grandson's privilege to reopen them on July 14, 1918, ironically one day before the second Battle of the Marne began near the River Marne with a German attack.
The hotel, which was shut down immediately by the confrontation, remained closed and uninhabited until 1926.
