The grand Roman portico added to the Palais Bourbon in 1806-08, Poyet, architect
The
Palais Bourbon, a
palace located on the left bank of the
Seine, across from the
Place de la Concorde, Paris (which is on the right bank), is the seat of the
French National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the
French government.
History
The palace was originally built for the legitimised daughter of
Louis XIV and
Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan -
Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, duchesse de Bourbon, to a design by the Italian architect
Lorenzo Giardini, approved by
Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Giardini oversaw the actual construction from 1722 until his death in 1724, after which
Jacques Gabriel took over, assisted by L'Assurance and other designers, until its completion in 1728.
Rather than a palace, for it was not a royal seat of power, the French termed it a
maison de plaisance overlooking the
Seine, facing the
Tuileries to the east and the developing
Champs-Élysées on the west. At the start it was composed of a principal block with simple wings ending in matching pavilions. Bosquets of trees—planted in orderly rank and file—and
parterres separated it from the nearby Hôtel de Lassay. In 1756
Louis XV bought it for the Crown, then sold it to the grandson of the Duchess,
Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, for whom
Jacques-Germain Soufflot directed an enlargement in 1765.
During the revolution
During the
French Revolution the Palais Bourbon was nationalized, and 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 . 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.
1840s
The Chamber of Deputies elected in 1846 was abruptly disbanded by the February Revolution, which oversaw an unprecedented direct election by universal suffrage to convoke a Constituent Assembly that was followed by a National Legislative Assembly in 1849.
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.
Museum
The extensive library surviving from the noble family of owners who left France during the revolution contains among others:
See also
