Description of the attraction
The Soubise Palace, a small old mansion, is located one hundred and fifty meters southeast of the Pompidou Center. These two buildings from different eras make a striking contrast.
On the site of the palace in the XIV century, the constable of France Olivier de Clisson, nicknamed the One-Eyed, built his metropolitan residence. Today, only a fortified gate with two turrets on the sides remained of it on Archives Street - the impression that a piece of a medieval fortress was brought here.
In 1553, the residence became the property of the Gizov family, who decided to completely rebuild the mansion. From those times, a chapel and a guard room remained in the palace (it hosted meetings of the Catholic League, which fought against Protestants). It is possible that it was here that the plans for St. Bartholomew's Night were built. Then Maria de Guise founded a wonderful theater in the mansion, in which the greats took part - the playwright Cornel, the composer Charpentier, the poet and novelist Lermit.
In 1700, the mansion was bought by the Breton baron François de Rohan, Comte de Rochefort, Prince of Soubise. He again completely rebuilt the palace that received a new name, leaving only the gate on Archives Street from the previous one. From that era, the mansion inherited the interiors in the Rococo style - in fact, this style was born here. During the revolution, the Rogans fled France, in 1808 the state bought the mansion, Napoleon placed the state archive here. In 1867, already under Napoleon III, the Museum of the History of France was created on the basis of archives.
The Soubise Palace houses the bulk of the museum's collection, illustrating the history of the country with interesting documents. One of the series of the collection is called "Iron Cabinet": it began with a special safe made by the decision of the Constituent Assembly for storing plates from which paper notes were printed. Soon the originals of the Constitution of France, its decrees and laws, the testament of Louis XIV and Napoleon were placed in the same safe. Also in the collection are state seals, diplomatic documents, evidence on major court cases, historical relics.
The museum now occupies several mansions in the center of Paris. The exposition of the Soubise Palace is open any day except Tuesday.
