Description of the attraction
The Palais de Justice is located in the very center of Paris, in the western part of the Ile de la Cité, not far from Notre Dame Cathedral. The complex is huge: the French court and prosecutor's office, the criminal police, and municipal services are traditionally concentrated here.
The history of the Palace goes back centuries. Around 508, the Frankish king Clovis chose the Isle of Cité to build his official residence. With the advent of the Carolingian dynasty, the monarchs abandoned the palace, the city was deserted. But at the end of the 10th century, Hugh Capet, the first king of the Capetian dynasty, placed his council and administration here. The castle became the seat of the French kings, and Paris was again the capital of France.
In the centuries that followed, the French kings tirelessly expanded and strengthened the capital's residence. However, in 1358 there was a popular uprising led by the Parisian provost Etienne Marcel. In front of the future monarch Charles V, in an impregnable palace, the rebels killed two royal advisers. After that, the royal family moved to the Louvre. Charles V gave the palace complex to the parliament, which then served as a body of justice. The Cité residence has become the Palace of Justice.
Today the Palace is a single architectural ensemble of buildings of different styles, built from the 13th to the 20th centuries. The central room is the Hall of the Lost Steps. The Parisian Communards burned it down, and later the hall was restored. From here you can go to the Golden Room, the bedroom of St. Louis. Here, during the French Revolution, the revolutionary tribunal was located, which passed death sentences.
The Palais de Justice was badly damaged during the Paris Commune; restoration work was carried out here for almost a century. But the main activity of the Palace was not interrupted even for a day. It was here that the most notorious trials took place, attracting a large public: 1880 - the trial of Sarah Bernhardt, who broke the life contract with the Comedie Francaise, 1893 - the Panama fraud, 1898 - the trial of Emile Zola for his pamphlet "I accuse", 1906 - the Dreyfus case, 1917 - the trial of the spy Mata Hari, 1945 - the trial of collaborationist Marshal Pétain.
On weekdays, the Palace of Justice is open to the public.
