Description of the attraction
The Bourbon Palace is primarily the seat of the French National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament (the upper house is called the Senate). And yet - an architectural monument with its own unique history.
The palace is located on the Orsay embankment, opposite the Place de la Concorde - it is connected with it by the Bridge of Concorde. The Palais Bourbon was built in 1722-1728 by the architect Lorenzo Giardini under the supervision of the First Royal Architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the author of the Lesser Trianon. The palace was intended for the Duchess Louise-Françoise of Bourbon, daughter of Louis XIV by his official favorite, the Marquise de Montespan. Louis XV bought the palace into the treasury and handed it over to the Prince of Condé.
During the revolution, the palace was nationalized, and the Council of Five Hundred - the lower house of the Republic's legislative assembly in 1795 - sat here. Thus, the tradition of placing the legislature in the Bourbon Palace has more than two centuries of history.
In the era of Napoleon, the palace was rebuilt: thanks to the efforts of the court architect of the emperor Bernard Poillet, he got a classic antique portico, echoing the portico of the Madeleine church located on the other bank of the Seine. The restoration of the monarchy returned the palace to its owners, but in 1827 it was finally and irrevocably bought out by the state to house the French parliament here.
The change in function required a change in the aesthetics of the building. François Rud performed the bas-relief "Prometheus, Inspiring Art" for the palace, the future deputy Eugene Delacroix painted the library ("History of Civilization"). Houdon's busts of Diderot and Voltaire appeared in the building. On the pediment of the palace, where before Napoleon was depicted in turn throwing trophy banners at the feet of the deputies, and Louis XVIII, representing the Constitution, France appeared in an antique toga. In front of the palace, sculptures of four major statesmen were installed - the reformer and financier Duke de Sully, the economist Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the politician-conciliator Michel L'Hôpital and the prominent lawyer Henri François D'Agessot.
The Bourbon Palace library contains real materials from the "case of Jeanne d'Arc" and Rousseau's manuscripts.
