Hôtel Maurel de Pontevès

The Hôtel Maurel de Pontevès holds a pair of stone giants on either side of its main entrance. These two massive atlantes hold up the heavy stone balcony above the door, their faces twisted into expressions of permanent strain. Pierre Maurel, a wealthy parliamentarian who built this mansion in sixteen forty-seven, used these sculptures to broadcast his status to everyone walking down the Rue de l’Opéra. He wanted the heavy architecture to show exactly how much power he held in Aix.