Between 1877 and 1903, Pierre Loti converted his birthplace and an adjacent house bought in 1895 into a Gesamtkunstwerk with several style rooms. In the first construction phase, two orientalising rooms were created: the salon turc (1877–1894) and the chambre arabe (1884). This was followed by a Japanese pagoda, a Gothic and a Renaissance room, a monk's cell, a mummy chamber, and a Chinese room, as well as by the so-called mosque on the second floor (1895–1897).
The latter resembles a Syrian qa'a (reception room), furnished under the impression of a trip to Jerusalem and Syria in 1894. In his book La Galilée (1896) Loti describes in detail two such rooms in which he himself had been received (Loti, 1896, p. 144, 146). Numerous original furnishings, including tiles from Damascus, were reused and installed together with replicated pieces (Liot, 1999, p. 61, 130). Six stucco and glass windows were set in the east wall: two in the lateral galleries and four in the upper part of the qibla-like central wall section. One of the windows might be an original piece most probably from Cairo, the other five are replicas commissioned by Loti.

Liot, T. (1999). La maison de Pierre Loti à Rochefort 1850–1923. Chauray: Patrimoines et médias.

Loti, P. (1896). La Galilée. Paris: C. Lévy.