Luxembourg Paris

Its construction was due to Marie de' Medici who, after the death of King Henri IV, decided to live not in the Louvre but in a place which in some way reminded her of Florence, the city from which she came. In 1612 she acquired the mansion of Duke Francois of Luxembourg, with its extensive grounds, and in 1615 commissioned Salomon de Brosse to erect a palace, the style and materials of which were to be as similar as possible to those of the Florentine palaces which she had left to come to France. And in fact the building's rustication and large ringed columns recall the Palazzo Pitti in Florence more than any other palace in Paris. The facade consists of a pavilion with two orders covered by a cupola, with two wings at the sides linked to the central building by galleries. When the Revolution broke out, the palace was taken from the royal family and converted into a State prison. On 4 November 1795 the First Directory adopted it as its seat, and Napoleon later used it as the Senate's chambers. To visit the interior of the palace, permission from the Secretary General of the Senate is needed. The Library is decorated with celebrated pictures by Delacroix (Dante and Virgil in Limbo, Alexander puts Homer's Poems in the Casket of Darius), painted in 1847, and on the ceiling of the Gallery are the Signs of the Zodiac, painted by Jordaens.

GARDENS

Covering no less than 57 acres, the gardens are a public park frequented every day by students from the Latin Quarter. Among the trees one can find fountains, groups of statues and even playing fields. A fine series of statues depicting the queens of France and illustrious women lines the terraces of the park. At the end of a canal on the eastern side of the palace, framed by the greenery, is the splendid Medici Fountain, attributed to Salomon de Brosse. In the central niche is depicted Polyphemus surprising Galatea with the shepherd Acis, by Ottin, 1863. On the back is a bas relief of Leda and the Swan done by Valois in 1806.

PETIT LUXEMBOURG.

This is on the right of the Luxembourg Palace, with its entrance at no. 17 Rue de Vaugirard. Once the property of Marie cle' Medici and of Cardinal Richelieu, it is now occupied by the president of the Senate.

AVENUE DE L'OBSERVATOIRE

This is a splendid avenue lined with trees, which runs from the Luxembourg Gardens to the Observatory. In the middle of the avenue, surrounded by greenery, is the celebrated fountain called the Fountain of the Four Parts of the World (Davioud, 1875). It has a group of maidens who symbolise the four parts of the world, sculpted with extraordinary lightness and grace by Carpeaux.

OBSERVATORY

At the end of the avenue is the Observatory, seat of the International Time Bureau since 1919. Construction of the Observatory, designed by Claude Perrault, was begun by order of Colbert on 21 June 1667 (the day of the summer solstice). The four walls of the building are oriented exactly to the four cardinal points of the compass, and the Paris meridian of longitude passes exactly through the building's centre.

From here one reaches Place Denfert Rochereau, the square which takes its name from the colonel who fiercely opposed the Germans at Belfort in 1870. Here too is the entrance to the Catacombs, limestone quarries of the Gallo Roman era which were used as ossuaries in 1785. Here thousands upon thousands of bones, brought from many cemeteries in the city, were placed. It is very probable that the skeletons include the remains (though no longer identifiable) of many protagonists of the Revolution (Robespierre, Danton, St Just), thrown into common graves.





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