The Lycée Montesquieu in Bordeaux opens its doors during the European Heritage Days on Saturday morning. The History of the Arts students will lead the visits.

Long before becoming a high school in 1901, the site experienced many transformations. A few stories...
Before the eleventh century, it was an uninhabited marshland. Between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it was created by the priests of Saint-Seurin as a vineyard. All around, they were only small makeshift houses or masures housed in a rather insecure space. In the sixteenth century, the district took the name of «plantier de Figeyrols», fig trees and the fountain of Figueyraux completing the wine plantations.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the site will know many successive owners. M. de Mérignac, dean of Parliament, acquired it in 1637 and took the domain name of Pradets. But the following year, it was Pierre Avelanet who bought him for his daughter who married a bourgeois and royal broker and who gave his new name to the property: Domaine Labatut.
From 1714 to 1727, it was Jean-Baptiste Thibault who bought the estate which now includes, according to the act of sale: house, cellar, cuvier, fountain, spring, well, pond, wash-house, garden, fruit orchard and a piece of land in vines and meadow which will become, in 1754, the street of the race.
Louis Couet, squire and commissar of the wars in Guyenne, takes over the estate and transforms it at great expense by adding different shops.
In the 19th century, the Moreau de Montcheuil family managed it from afar after its purchase in 1790. The manor house is occupied by the Castro nurseryman and the stalls are rented. In 1859, the last heir of the Montcheuil family, chief inspector of customs, sold the estate to Doctor Antoine-Anatole-Paul Delmas who would transform it into a hydrotherapeutic institute of Longchamps, place du Jardin des Plantes (future Public Garden) which will later take the name of Place Longchamps.
The Doctor Delmas' establishment includes a two-storey hotel, the hydrotherapy centre and various outbuildings covering an area of more than 8,600 m². On March 2, 1871, this health centre will have its day of glory at the funeral of the deputy Emile Kiess (hospitalized for two weeks), presided over by Gambetta himself, and a crowd came to pay a final tribute to the man who was believed to be the ultimate mayor of Strasbourg. Indeed, Thiers had just announced on February 17, 1871 the loss of Alsace and Lorraine during the session of the National Assembly held at the Grand Théâtre during the exile of the government in Bordeaux in 1870.

A high school in history...

It was not until the twentieth century that the city bought the estate from Doctor Delmas for 675,000 francs. In 1901, the school became the annex of the Lycée de Bordeaux until 1946, namely the Lycée Montaigne. It welcomed students until the third from 1905.
From 1914 to 1916, the Lycée Longchamps was occupied by the Ministries of Public Works, Agriculture and Labour during the new government exile in Bordeaux.
From the autumn of 1928, Longchamps High School, with 500 students, became operational with classes of the final cycle. In 1938, it already has 1250 students. Until 1958 it has an annex, the small high school of Talence, which will become the high school Victor Louis.
In 1948, it took the name of lycée Montesquieu on the proposal of a teacher of the lycée in homage to the National Academy of Sciences, Belles Lettres et Arts of Bordeaux located place bardineau, close to the lycée and in which Montesquieu was located.
In 1960, primary classes disappeared and in 1975 the first cycle corresponding to college classes. The only vestige of this time, is the courtyard of the high school divided into three parts (see photo). The mixing of classes does not occur until 1971.
Renovated from 1976, it undergoes different transformations with the construction of a gymnasium, a multipurpose room, an extension of its premises with a footbridge on Rue Le Chapelier (restoration and theatres and cinema among others) and a new CDI in 2010, on the first floor of the historic building.
Close to the public garden, the school has continued to transform itself into a public institution of character that today welcomes nearly 1,200 students, with a strong cultural identity around cinema, theatre and the history of the arts.