This fine edifice is the only inhabited tourist attraction of historical interest in France’s Haut-de-France region. It is a major emblem of Saint-Omer. In 1817, Étienne Neyrat bought these houses that lie in the shadow of Saint-Omer’s Notre-Dame Cathedral. He kept the buildings’ walls and turned the interior into an Empire-style palace, investing huge sums of money in this remarkable property. In the wake of the cholera epidemic in 1830, the house was sold to various wealthy families, then to a pharmaceutical laboratory. Successive owners with good taste have preserved the house. Its current inhabitants – serious art collectors – have recovered the edifice’s former glory through their determined efforts: this extraordinary place now invites you to admire the original rooms and colours of the museum-like house that Étienne Neyrat envisaged.

The cathedral palace

The house lies in the shadow of Saint-Omer’s splendid Notre-Dame Cathedral, which dates back to the Middle Ages. The walls of this magnificent cathedral were once adorned with paintings depicting the life of Saint Audomar. The property reveals an outstanding project to share the heritage and history of the cathedral palace: a grouping of six former houses that belonged to the cathedral chapter. The main section’s brick facade rises up over three floors and recalls the architectural plainness of the medieval banking city of Florence, which may have appealed to Étienne Neyrat, who was a stockbroker. This absence of decorative features is offset by stringcourses that underline the floors and arches that shape the second-floor windows. The small section’s facade is enclosed in a courtyard formed by the cathedral and remains of houses that were demolished. It perfectly illustrates the nineteenth-century project to turn the three canonical houses into one property in a pre-Regency style with a large central window above a double door. The different chapter buildings have been merged into a single house beneath their tiled gable roofs punctuated with hipped and gabled dormers.

The ground floor
The plainness of the house’s tall yellow-brick facade contrasts with the abundance of ornaments inside its grand marble hallway, which is inspired by that of the Palazzo Primoli in Rome. An elegant staircase rises up among stucco, false marble, false porphyry and painted decoration. The original, patterned marble tiling, made by the marble craftsman who worked on the neighbouring cathedral, leads straight to the colourful stained-glass windows that frame the back door through which you walk out into the garden.

This hallway is a dual-aspect area with two doors at each end that lead outside. The hall takes you directly into the reception rooms, the chapel and the kitchen. The house offers a remarkable interior that is bright and welcoming: lounges and libraries invite you to unwind or read. The first lounge’s high-quality materials, like its solid parquet of rosewood and mahogany, serve as a foretaste of the adjoining lounges where chandeliers with crystal tassels are reflected in large English mirrors that stand proudly above the fireplaces below them. Natural light pervades this ground floor. It floods in through the large windows of the living rooms and showcases wonderful wooden panelling and colourful strips of flowers and laurels, much loved by the eighteenth-century Scottish designer Robert Adam.

The dining room is known as the columns room. Its decoration is refined. Around the edge of this dining room stand columns of false marble made by the owner himself. In its octagonal shape, wooden panelling and plaster works are punctuated with columns that mirror the marble fireplace’s ornamentation. The owner’s passion for false marble prompted him to add special touches to his home, as can be seen in the framing of the fireplace that stands proudly in the fully modernised kitchen.

The little chapel, which includes six large paintings from Longuenesse prison, has been given back its old position, which some inhabitants of Saint-Omer still remember – it has taken the place of the breakfast lounge that looks out at the garden.

The first floor
At the top of the staircase, an elegant landing lies upon a structure of wood and metal. It connects to four bedrooms with fine decoration. The green bedroom has kept its eighteenth-century design with its alcove and fabric. All the floors on this level have been restored in the same way, with their original colours brought back.

Two large, bright bedrooms in a nineteenth-century style display a remarkable chromatic design that reflects tastes in 1825. With their parquet floors and pale walls, they bathe in natural light from the cathedral forecourt. One of them has an adjoining bathroom and a walk-in wardrobe. There is also a shower room from which you can admire the cathedral roofs.

At the end of the landing, which resembles an English art gallery like Sir John Soane’s Museum, a door leads to another small staircase that takes you up to the second floor, where an apartment described by its owner as marvellous is often made available for guests.

The second floor
This floor is taken up by an apartment that has been given back its former glory. Yet in 1827, it was daring to turn this space into an apartment for servants with bathrooms and a boiler room.

It offers a view of Saint-Omer’s Notre-Dame Cathedral. It includes a vast, bright living room that leads to a bedroom with a contemporary look and a bathroom.

This second floor has been perfectly restored and reflects the styles below. Noble materials have been preserved, showcased and combined with twenty-first-century comfort.

The attic
The vast attic extends beneath an exposed roof frame. It could be converted and used as a workshop or games room. From the small loft room, the Renaissance ornamentation of the building dedicated to Saint Aldegundis can be seen. The small loft’s roofing was restored in 2019.

The cellar
The atmosphere of the town’s former underground passages from the twelfth century contrast with the palace’s esoteric ground-floor decoration. Canons would transport barrels of wine through these vaulted passages from the square Place Victor Hugo. The well is the place’s oldest feature and its structure is like that of the well in the town’s motte-and-bailey castle. This well is still in working order and is used to water the garden plants. Everything in this cellar is in good condition. It is ready to house a collection of fine wines.

The garden
The small tree-dotted garden is a haven of romanticism. Its outer wall still bears traces of medieval stone remains. Indeed, this is the only remnant of a building that was dedicated to Saint Aldegundis and that contained the chapter house and the chapter’s famous library. It is the oldest wall of the town’s houses and it bears witness to all the changes made since the twelfth century. A request for it to be listed as a national historical monument could be envisaged.