Palais Bourbon

The classical portico added to the Palais Bourbon in 1806-08 by Napoleon Bonaparte
The National Assembly in session in the hemisphere of the Palais Bourbon

The Palais Bourbon (pronounced: [pa.lɛ buʁ.bɔ̃]) is a government building located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine, across from the Place de la Concorde. It is the seat of the French National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French government. The Palace was originally built beginning in 1722 by Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, the duchesse de Bourbon, the legitimized daughter of Louis XIV, as a country house, surrounded by gardens. It was nationalized during the French Revolution, and from 1795 to 1799, during the Directory, it was the meeting place of the Council of Five Hundred, which chose the government leaders. Beginning in 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte added the classical colonnade. beginning in 1806, to mirror that of Church of the Madeleine, facing it across the Seine and the Place de la Concorde. The Palace complex today includes the Hôtel de Lassay, on the west side of the Palais Bourbon; it is the official residence of the President of the National Assembly.

History

An aristocratic country house in Paris (1726-1789)

The palace was built for Louise-Françoise de Bourbon (1673-1743), the duchesse de Bourbon, the legitimized daughter of Louis XIV and Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan. Begun in 1722 and finished in 1726, it was located in what was then a largely rural quarter at the edge of Paris, which was about to become a very fashionable residential neighborhood, the Faubourg Saint-Germain. Until that time, the area, called the Pré-au-Clercs, a wooded area popular for fighting duels. After the death of Louis XIV in 1715, following the example of the Regent, the aristocracy began to move their residences from Versailles back to Paris. Building space land was scarce in the traditional residential area of the nobility, the densely-populated Marais, so the aristocracy of the Regency looked for land with space for gardens at the edges of the city, either near the Champs-Élysées on the right bank or on the left bank. [1]

The Duchesse de Bourbon had been known for frivolity at the Court in Versailles, but by the 1720s she had had seven children and was widowed. The reputed lover of the Duchess, Armand-Madaillan de Lesparre, the Comte de Lassay, proposed the site of the palace to her; he had purchased land next door along the Seine, and the two buildings were constructed at the same time. next door, and the two buildings were built at the same time. The parcel of land for the new palace was large, extending from the Seine to the rue de l'Université.

The original plan called for a country residence surrounded by gardens, modeled after the Grand Trianon Palace at Versailles, designed by Jules Hardouin Mansart, the chief architect of Louis XIV. The Italian architect Lorenzo Giardini made the first plan, but he died in 1722, having made little but the first sketches. The project was taken over by Pierre Cailleteau, also known as Lassurance, who had been an assistant to Hardouin-Mansart. Cailleteau had worked on the palace of Versailles and Les Invalides, and knew the royal style very well, but he died in 1724. He was replaced by Jean Aubert, also a former assistant of Hardouin-Mansart. Aubert had built one of the grandest projects of the time; the stables of the royal residence at Chantilly. In the meanwhile, the construction of the neighboring Hôtel de Lassay had begun, following a plan by another noted architect, Jacques Gabriel, the designer of the buildings around the Place de la Concorde. Both buildings were finished in 1728.[2]

Both the Palais Bourbon and the Hôtel de Lassay were in the Italian style, with roofs hidden by balustrades and invisible from street level. The Palais Bourbon was in a U-shape. The main building was parallel to the Seine, with two wings enclosing a courtyard, The entrance to the courtyard and building was on the Rue de la Université, The entrance to the courtyard had an ornate archway, flanked by two pavilions. The Hôtel de Lassay was rectangular, and more modest in size. The two buildings had identical facades facing the Seine. The facades featured alternating columns and windows, and decoration on the themes of the seasons, the elements, and, fitting for the daughter of the Sun King, about Apollo. The space between the buildings, and between the buildings and the Seine, was filled with gardens. In addition to the large reception rooms, the interior of the house had many small salons which could be arranged for a variety of purposes. It also had a novelty for buildings of the period; corridors, so one could pass through the building without walking through the rooms. None of the original apartments of the Duchesse survive; they were demolished in the subsequent remodelings. [2]

The neoclassical portal added by the Prince de Condé

The Duchesse de Bourbon died in 1743, and De Lassay died in 1750. The Palace was purchased by Louis XV, who seems to have wished to include it in the plan of the new place Royale (now the Place de la Concorde) which he was building on the other side of the river. But in 1756 he sold it to grandson of the Duchess, Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, who had been a military hero in the just-concluded Seven Years War. The Prince decided to largely rebuild it, turning it from a country house into a monumental palace, in the new classical revival style. With this end in mind, in 1768 he purchased the neighboring Hôtel de Lassay, and planned to make the two buildings into one. A new plan was drawn by Marie-Joseph Peyre, whose style was based on archeological studies of ancient Rome and Greece. Peyre's other neoclassical works included the Odéon Theater. Several different architects were engaged in the project, including for Jacques-Germain Soufflot, Bellisard and Charpentier.

For the neoclassical palace of the Prince, the entrance on rue Université was replaced by a larger and more impressive gate, framed by a gallery of columns. The two wings of the building were extended, and a pavilion was created with apartments for one of his sons. An abundance of military decoration, including stucco sculptures of shields and weapons, was added to the vestibule, and are still visible today. The palace was only finished at the end of the 1780s, when the French Revolution swept away the old regime. The Prince went into exile, and the two residences were confiscated by the state in 1792. [3]

The Revolution, Consulate and Empire (1789-1814)

The first French national assembly gathered without royal authorization on 20 June 1789 in the tennis court of the Palace of Versailles. the first step of the French Revolution, and in May 1793 moved to the empty theater of the Tuileries Palace in Paris. The aristocracy fled into exile, and the Palais Bourbon and Hôtel de Lassay, like the Luxembourg Palace, Élysée Palace and Hôtel Matignon were nationalized, and used for government functions. The stables of the Palais became the headquarters of the administration of military transport, while the Palais Bourbon became in 1794 the Central School of Public Works, which later became, under Napoleon, the [[École Polytechnique, the famous military engineering school.

The Council of the Five Hundred met in the palace from 1798. Then, as part of Napoleon's plans for a more monumental Paris, Fontanes, the president of the Corps législatif as it was now called, commissioned the magnificent pedimented portico by architect Bernard Poyet, added to the front of the Palais that faces the Place de la Concorde from the south. It mirrors the similar classicizing portico of the Madeleine, visible at the far end of the rue Royale.

Bourbon Restoration

In a symptom of the political tone of the Bourbon Restoration, the returning exile, the prince de Condé took possession, and rented to the Chamber of Deputies a large part of the palace. The palace was bought outright from his heir in 1827, for 5,250,000 francs.[4] The Chamber of Deputies was then able to undertake major work, better suiting the chamber, rearrangement of access corridors and adjoining rooms, installation of the library in a suitable setting, where the decoration and one of the salons were entrusted to Delacroix, later a Deputy himself. The pediment was re-sculpted by French artist Jean-Pierre Cortot.

1840s

Delacroix, with the help of some assistants, painted the entire vault of the long gallery which was to house the library. His work there was completed by the end of 1847 and immediately hailed as a masterpiece by the critic.[5]

The Chamber of Deputies elected in 1846 was abruptly disbanded by the February Revolution, which oversaw an unprecedented direct election by universal suffrage to convene a Constituent Assembly that was followed by a National Legislative Assembly in 1849. (See also French demonstration of 15 May 1848.)

Hôtel de Lassay

The adjacent Hôtel de Lassay, connected by a gallery to the Palais Bourbon, serves as the official residence of the National Assembly's president.

Library

The extensive library, originally set up from books belonging to the clergy and to aristocrats who left France during the Revolution, contains among others:

Gallery

See also

References

Bibliography

Notes and citations

  1. ↑ Icikovics & 2013 pages-8-9.
  2. 1 2 Icikovics and Altmayer & 2013 pages-8-9.
  3. ↑ Icikovics and Altmayer 2013, p. 11.
  4. ↑ "Assemblée nationale ~ Les députés, le vote de la loi, le Parlement français". Assemblee-nat.fr. Retrieved 2012-09-07.
  5. ↑ ["Delacroix's paintings for the Library of the Assemblée nationale". Assemblee-nationale.fr. Retrieved 2014-01-09.

External links

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Coordinates: 48°51′43″N 2°19′07″E / 48.862036°N 2.318593°E / 48.862036; 2.318593

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