Built by 1639 by Pierre Hardy, chair treasurer of France to the office(desk) of Limoges, the hotel which shelters the Regional Cultural Affairs Directorate today pull(fire) his name of the family Maledent du Puytison and of Feytiat, the ally of the family Hardy, who(which) domiciled(resided) up to Revolution there. Maledent having emigrated, the hotel and its appendices was put under sequestration then served as administration building before being acquired(bought back) in 1820 by the sisters of the Cross who established girls' boarding school there.
Closed in 1904 by virtue of law on congregations, the establishment was opened again in 1921 under the name of "Boarding school of the Sacred Heart". It was acquired(bought back) by the State on March 3rd, 1971 to instal(settle) the services(departments) of cultural affairs in Limousin there.
Located at the time of its construction between convents, then recently done up, Récollets de Saint-François and Girls Notre-Dame, the Maledent hotel establishes(constitutes) an exemplary evidence of the provincial civil architecture of the first half of the XVIIth century, still very influenced by the theories of Renaissance spread(broadcasted) by the books(pounds) of Serlio and Vignole.
It is what is worth to us the delightful court(yard) with open gallery, the passage covered with the stairwell where is registered, on a key of hanging vault, the date of 1639, finally the classic portal(gate) where the care of the sequencing(order to pay), with its twinned columns and its stylised ionic capitals(big tops), competes for it in the concern(marigold) of perusal.
Indoors, and at the ground floor, three monumental fireplaces (of which the one got back of an old(former) house of Limoges) and some vaulted rooms(parts,plays), in the floors of base, supplement the evocation of this notable's old(former) house.
Extensions on the High street - Comedy and on the street of the Portal(Gate) Imbert, results(profits) of several "functional" arrangements(developments) do not contain old(former) vestiges anymore. On the contrary cellars underground, partly walled up, evoke in a concrete way, the picturesque and the complexity of the underground heritage of Limoges.

Château, hôtel urbain, palais, manoir, Monument historique