Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Bourbon Palace was commissioned in 1722 by Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, the legitimized daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan, to become her Parisian residence. Built between 1722 and 1728 by architects Giardini, Lassurance, Jean Aubert and Jacques V Gabriel, it adopts an Italian style inspired by the Grand Trianon. The palace, considered an architectural jewel of the eighteenth century, was enlarged under Louis XV and confiscated as a national property in 1791 during the Revolution.

As early as 1798, the Bourbon Palace became the seat of the Council of Five Cents, the first lower chamber of the Republic. Under Napoleon I, architect Bernard Poyet transforms the northern facade into a neo-classical columned peristyle, evoking a Greek temple dedicated to the Laws, in a symmetrical response to the church of Madeleine. The current hemicycle, designed between 1827 and 1832 by Jules de Joly, incorporates elements inherited from previous regimes, such as the presidential chair designed by Jacques-Louis David.

The palace passed through French political regimes, successively housing the Legislative Corps, the Chamber of Deputies, and the National Assembly since 1946. Its history is marked by dramatic events, such as the anarchist attack of 1893 or the crisis of 6 February 1934, as well as Republican symbols, such as the allegorical fronton of Cortot (1841) or the sphere of human rights installed in 1989. Today, it embodies both a place of power and an artistic heritage, with its library decorated by Delacroix and its historical collections.

During World War II, the palace, deserted by parliamentarians, was occupied by the German administration and the Luftwaffe. The Hemicycle served as a setting for Hitler's speeches and a trial against resistors in 1942. Released in 1944, he regained his parliamentary function, while undergoing modernization (underground parking in 1980, recent renovations). The debate on colonial memory reappeared in 2020 with controversies about tributes to Colbert, editor of the Black Code, illustrating tensions between heritage and history.

The Bourbon Palace is also distinguished by its emblematic spaces: the Four-Columns Hall, where journalists have been interviewing MPs since 1968, the hemicycle with red velvet seats decorated with commemorative plaques, or the library with treasures such as the Codex Borbonicus. Its architecture, combining princely heritage and republican symbols, makes it a political and cultural monument, classified in the remarkable heritage site of the 7th arrondissement.

Future

It houses the French National Assembly.

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