One of the outstanding sights of France is the Palais Royal in Paris, a luxurious palace and park complex, the former residence of the most influential people of the state. Directly opposite the Palais-Royal-Musee-du-Louvre metro station and the north side of the Louvre, there is a magnificent palace with a square and a garden, hidden behind the old buildings surrounding it. The history of the Palais-Royal complex began in the 17th century, when the palace was called Cardinal and belonged to the first royal minister, the Duke de Richelieu. Since then, the structure and the surrounding space have undergone many changes and reconstructions. But still the Palais Royal can be considered the "capital of Paris", as Karamzin wrote about him, traveling around France in 1790.
Cardinal's Legacy
When in 1624 Cardinal de Richelieu took up the post of first minister and head of government of Louis XIII, he was looking for a decent dwelling in the immediate vicinity of the Louvre. They became a large estate of Angen with several buildings, a garden and fortifications. For the reconstruction of the palace, Richelieu attracted one of the best Parisian architects Jacques Lemercier, who masterfully combined elements of classicism and baroque.
The work was carried out from 1633 to 1639, and when the construction was completed, the palace, called the Palais-Cardinal, competed with the dwelling of the French kings. The area of the Louvre in those days was four times smaller, and the appearance is much more modest than the current one. Louis XIII was very unhappy with this circumstance, but the cardinal diplomatically resolved the incident by drawing up a will, according to which his palace passed in favor of the king.
After the death of Richelieu in December 1642, Louis XIII half a year owned the magnificent residence of the Cardinal, surviving until May 1643. King Dowager Anna of Austria, regent of five-year-old Louis XIV, moves with the young king and his three-year-old brother to the Palais-Cardinal. The Queen, the eternal adversary of Richelieu, renames the Palais Cardinal to the Palais Royal. The palace also becomes the abode of Cardinal Mazarin, Minister of France and Anna's protege.
The future Sun King spent all his childhood in these apartments, but when he left the palace, he never returned to it. However, one of the wings of the monarch placed at the disposal of his official favorite the Duchess of Louise de Lavalier. And in 1680, according to the decree of the monarch, the Comedy Frances Theater was founded at the Palais Royal.
Residence of the Dukes of Orleans
Since 1661, Louis XIV focused on the construction of Versailles, and transferred the Palais Royal in Paris to the ownership of his younger brother Philip I of Orleans. The palace complex underwent global changes at the end of the 18th century under the Duke Louis Philippe of Orleans (Egalite). He constantly lacked money for his luxurious lifestyle, and he figured out how to extract regular income through his real estate. Architect Victor Louis, on three sides along the perimeter of the garden, built the same type of house with arched galleries on the ground floors, which housed the first Parisian coffee houses, fashion clubs and countless shops.
Paris entertainment center
The arcade around the palace has become an expensive and prestigious place. A very figurative description of the Palais Royal in Paris at the end of the 18th century can be found in the Letters of a Russian Traveler by Nikolai Karamzin. In galleries, they sold jewelry, precious stones, works of art, goods brought from all over the world, books and manuscripts, magnificent fabrics and many different wonders. The palace park, where the circus tent, the Comedy Francaise theater, and the galleries with their coffee houses and brightly lit display cases were always crowded, they became a fashionable place for Parisians to entertain. Quite quickly gambling houses and entertainment establishments appeared here. Police did not appear in the Palais Royal area, receiving a ban on patrolling the area.
During the period of the French Republic
After the revolutionary events in 1793, Egalite was executed, and the palace was nationalized. In 1814, when the monarchy was restored, Louis XVIII returned their property to the Orleans family. The palace interior was completely renovated by the architect Pierre Francois Fontin, the shopping and entertainment venues in the galleries were closed, and the Palais Royal in Paris became a brilliant concentration of high society. In 1848, during the next revolution, the palace was looted, and under the Paris Commune, as a symbol of monarchical power, it was burned. Some parts of the building and the interior are completely burned out. The Palais Royal became the property of the state, in 1873 it was restored by the city authorities, after which it housed government offices.
The last reconstruction took place in the 1980s. Since the building is now occupied by the Ministry of Culture, the State and Constitutional Councils, the palace, except for the western wing, is practically not accessible for tourists.
Buren's columns
During the last restoration, the Ministry of Culture decided to renew the square in front of the palace. Since 1980, as part of the Two Squares program, sculptural design has been designed by Daniel Buren, a popular concept artist in France. His creative strategy, depicting the alternation of color and white stripes, was embodied in a colossal spatial installation: 260 multilevel columns were lined up in a geometric order on the square. Their black and white marble lining creates a contrasting pattern of vertical stripes.
When the Ministry of Culture unveiled the project, its implementation provoked strong public protests. Rallies against such embellishment of historical architecture in Paris did not stop even after the installation of the sculptural composition in 1986. Nevertheless, over time, Buren’s columns turned into an extravagant landmark of the city, appear in some films and fell in love with Parisians.
Fountains of Bury
A year earlier, Buren’s striped columns, two fountains by sculptor and painter Paul Bury, who worked in the direction of kinetic art, were installed in front of the palace. These are metal balls laid out on the plane from which water flows. By reflecting moving objects on the spherical surface of balls, which, in turn, are reflected in water, Paul Bury embodied the idea of dynamic plastic. Separated by the colonnade, the fountains of Bury and the sculptural installation of Buren became complementary elements of a single composition.
"Comedy Francaise"
The theater was established in the Palais Royal by order of Cardinal Richelieu. For this, the architect Jacques Lemersier used the east wing of the palace. The theater, which opened in 1641, was called the Grand Palais-Cardinal Hall. Here in 1660-1673, alternating with Italian actors, Moliere's troupe played and his comedies were staged. After the death of the great comedian in 1763, the Paris Opera, led by Lully, supplanted the Moliere Theater. After the fire of 1781, another building was built for the opera, and the palace wing was rebuilt for the Comedy Frances Theater, founded by Louis XIV.
At that time, two competing theaters worked in Paris: the Hotel Genego, the Moliere troupe representing comedies, and the Burgundy Hotel, where tragedies were staged. By decree of Louis XIV, both troupes were combined into a single theater, which opened in 1680. Today it presents exclusively the French classical repertoire.
A park
A quiet, cozy garden is located behind the Palais Royal. It is surrounded by four-story buildings with arcades, which once housed the famous galleries of the Duke of Orleans. The center of the park is a large round fountain. Not far from it, on the conventional line of the Paris Meridian, a small bronze cannon was installed. From 1786 to 1998, its prototype was here, equipped with the ingenious mechanism of the watchmaker Russo. In the summer months, the rays of the sun, passing through an optical device, ignited a cannon charge, and the gun fired at exactly noon.
Not every guide in Paris will lead a tour of the garden alleys - there are few sights. But Parisians love this picturesque city corner with its lovely flower beds and linden alleys, spring flowering of magnolias and daffodils. It is not crowded and quiet, and only on Sundays the peace is disturbed by wedding groups who prefer to be photographed against the backdrop of this metropolitan oasis.