Guernsey - Hauteville House
 Stately Homes |
Hauteville House, also known as Maison Victor Hugo, is located on one of St Peter Port's high hills, and as such offers one of the best vantage points in the town with panoramic views across the harbour below. One of the principal attractions in Guernsey, Hauteville is much more than merely the house in which a famous writer and exile resided, it is a living memorial and a unique museum to a genuine eccentric, one who expressed his inspiration not only through literature but also in the realm of interior decoration.
In 1852, Victor Hugo, along with some 200 other political refugees, fled to the Channel Isles in fear for their lives after Napoleon III rose to prominence in France. For Hugo, his exile began in Jersey, but within three years he was forced again to find sanctuary elsewhere. In 1855, L'Homme, the local newspaper for the exiled community, expressed severe censure of Queen Victoria's state visit to Paris. Jersey locals protested, the paper was closed down, three of the paper's staff were expelled and when Hugo led a 'Republican' protest against the expulsion, inviting the authorities to repeat the exercise to all who had signed the petition, Jersey's lieutenant-governor dutifully obliged and Hugo was off to Guernsey.
Hauteville House was purchased by the writer in 1856, at the very time when local shops were 'crammed to the gunnels' with the spoils of privateering.. Hugo raided these shops with relish, purchasing enormous amounts of valuable furniture and tapestry with which to redesign the interior of his new house. He lived at Hauteville from 1856 until 1870, creating a personalised interior like no other, by dismantling the fabulous furniture and cutting-up the fabrics to refashion them in a purely individual style, a triumph of imagination over conformity.
Beyond the front door, the Entrance hall is bedecked with medieval figurines and intricate Chinese paintings, while the passage through to the garden has walls and ceiling decorated with priceless china pieces from Delft and Rouen; there is even a Sevres set, a personal gift from Charles X of France. Through the Billiards Room, hung with his own paintings and those of his wife, to a further room where expensive drapes from Aubosson and Flanders cover walls and ceiling, and a 'home made' mantelpiece has been constructed from pieces of furniture dating from the medieval and Renaissance periods. In the Dining Room, walls are hidden by Delft tiles, a heavy wooden seat designed by Hugo displays a coat of arms and the ceiling is laden with expensive 18th century Gobelins tapestry.
The renowned Red and Blue drawing rooms are situated on the first floor, so called from the particular colour of their silk upholstery. An enormous canopy is held up by four life-size gilded figures, once the pride of the Venetian Doge's barge, the Boucentaure. Here also are 18th century Chinese lacquered panels, a marquetry table and Louis XV armchairs. The second floor contains ornate wooden chests and commodes transformed into wall panels, chair backs turned upside-down as curtain pelmets and an enormous four-poster bed constructed from 25 separate pieces of furniture - the latter was made for Garibaldi who never arrived, thus the bed was never used.
Hugo spent his working day in the 'look-out', the studio he had built at the top of the house where he worked every day in all weathers; dressed in a long red gown, he would stand to write at the window, drawing warmth from the porcelain stove, which was crowned by a small statue of Venus.
During his sojourn at Hauteville House, Hugo produced a prodigious volume of novels, poems and essays including Les Miserables (1862) and Les Travailleurs de la Mer (1866). He didn't end his days in Guernsey and he may well have felt discomfort in a foreign country at times, but it was here that he conceived his most brilliant and profound works, both in prose and poetic form. Hauteville House, for all its wonderful oddities, retains a grand and stately countenance, and conducted tours are provided for visitors who remain in the safe hands of very knowledgeable guides. All visitors to the Channel Isles should certainly make an appointment with this most unique of houses.