Hôtel de Bernuy

The Hôtel de Bernuy is distinguished by its twenty-six and a half meter high octagonal staircase tower, which rises prominently above the surrounding rooftops. Built between fifteen oh three and fifteen thirty-six, this mansion captures the immense wealth generated by the sixteenth-century woad trade, a plant used to produce blue pigment. Its owner, Jean de Bernuy, was a Spanish merchant who became one of the city's most influential figures, even providing the bail required to ransom King Francis the First after his capture at the Battle of Pavia.