Académie des Jeux floraux

The Hotel d'Assézat houses the Académie des Jeux floraux, recognizable by the ornate, loggia-style courtyard hidden behind its heavy street-facing wooden doors. Established in thirteen twenty-three, this institution remains the oldest literary society in the Western world. Seven troubadours founded the group to promote poetry by awarding a golden violet to the best composition. In sixteen ninety-four, King Louis the Fourteenth granted the academy formal letters patent, cementing its role as the guardian of the Occitan language and poetic traditions.