Le Palais de Chaillot
17
place du Trocadéro - 75016 Paris Open:
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In the
16th century, Catherine de Medicis built herself a house
in the country here on Chaillot hill, later occupied by
the Marshall of Bassompière. Richelieu sent him to the
Bastille, where they say he burned the more than 6,000
love letters he received over the course of his life. In
1651, Queen Henrietta of England took over the palace and
founded the convent of the Visitation, where many famous
ladies came to relax. The convent was later torn down to
accommodate the Palace that Napoleon dreamed of building
for his son, the King of Rome. But his dream was
shattered by the fall of his Empire. Trocadéro gets its name from fort Cadix, taken by the French in 1823 to reestablish the Spanish monarchy. The Trocadero Palace, whose design was inspired by Moorish art, was built for the World Expo in 1878, and it was here that the ancient Chaillot Palace was built for the 1937 Expo. The current palace is the work of Azema, Carlu, and Boileau. Between its two curving wings that slope toward the Seine is the terrace of the Rights of Mankind, from which there is a magnificent view of the Eiffel Tower and the Champs de Mars. The Chaillot Palace is the home of many different museums in several fields, such as cinema, maritime history, and anthropology, as well as the Cinematheque. |