Historic Polish residence suffers 'irreversible' damage

The Hotel Lambert on Wednesday. Photo: EPA/Ian Langsdon

The minister visited the charred Hotel Lambert on Wednesday, after 170 firefighters managed to quell the flames.

The mansion, which during the 19th century was a political and cultural salon of Polish exile Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, was described by Minister Filippetti as “an irreplaceable heritage site.”

Speaking with French news agency AFP, she said “we will do everything to ensure that the greater part can be preserved.”

Nevertheless, she confirmed that the roof had “entirely collapsed”, and that 17th century frescoes by the French master Eustache Le Sueur were beyond saving, among other losses.

Current owner Prince Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani, brother of the Emir of Qatar, had been carrying out renovation works at the mansion.

Minister Filippetti stressed that “no cause has been identified” for the blaze, which began before dawn on Wednesday.

The mansion, where Chopin was a regular guest, served as the headquarters for Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, who fled Tsarist Poland after the doomed November Uprising of 1830 against Russian rule.

The Hotel Lambert, which became his family's residence, functioned as a kind of unofficial embassy for the then non-existent Poland, with the Czartoryskis attempting to curry favour with those sympathetic to the cause of Polish independence.

The Czartoryski family ultimately sold the property in 1978 to a branch of the Rothschild banking dynasty. The Rothschilds in turn sold the mansion to its current owner in 2007. (nh)