Description of the attraction
In 1612, shortly after the death of King Henry IV, his widow Maria de Medici wanted to move out of the melancholy Louvre. The Queen bought the empty palace of the Duke of Luxembourg along with the garden. She commissioned the architect Salomon de Bross to rebuild the acquisition.
De Bross decided to rebuild the palace in the "Tuscan" style. However, in the planning he applied the so-called French scheme, and the high roofs and the dome of the palace fit well into the canons of French classicism.
Maria de Medici liked the palace. She wanted to decorate the second floor galleries with specially painted paintings. For this she invited an outstanding master - Rubens. The artist created a cycle of 24 paintings "The Life of Marie de Medici". A skilled diplomat, he took a bold step: not too significant milestones in the queen's life were portrayed as great events with the participation of ancient gods. Now these canvases are exhibited at the Louvre.
The Medici did not live in the palace for long: her son Louis XIII expelled her from Paris. The palace was empty until the revolution. During the revolution it was made a prison for the nobility. Here sat Desmoulins, Lanton, the future wife of Napoleon Josephine Beauharnais.
During the German occupation, the headquarters of the Luftwaffe was located here, Hermann Goering came here. The French Senate is now located in the Luxembourg Palace.
Despite the strictly official character of the palace, the magnificent park adjacent to it is absolutely accessible to visitors - this is one of the favorite places of rest for Parisians.
Children are attracted here by the Guignol miniature theater with its hero parsley, an old children's carousel, walking ponies and carriages. Favorite children's entertainment - the fountain opposite the facade of the palace. Here you can launch rented boats.
The Luxembourg Gardens is also an open-air museum. Here you can see dozens of sculptures depicting the queens of France, great figures, characters of ancient myths. In one corner of the garden, there is a two-meter copy of the Statue of Liberty by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the master who created the giant figure of Liberty for the United States.
