Construction began in 1564, originally to serve as a home for QueenCatherine de' Medici, and was gradually extended until it closed off the western end of the courtyard and displayed an immense façade of 266 metres. Since the destruction of the Tuileries, the courtyard has remained open to the west, and the site now overlooks the eastern end of theTuileries Garden, forming an elevated terrace between thePlace du Carrousel and the gardens proper.
The Tuileries, just outside the city walls, in about 1589
The site of the Tuileries Palace was originally just outside the walls of the city, in an area frequently flooded by the Seine as far as the presentRue Saint-Honoré. The land was occupied by the workshops and kilns craftsmen who made 'tuiles', or roof tiles. Because of its proximity to theLouvre Castle, members of the royal family began buying plots of land there.[1]
After the death ofHenri II in 1559, his widowCatherine de' Medici moved into the Louvre Castle with her son,Francis II. She planned a new residence for herself, on a site that was close to the Louvre and had space for a large garden. She sold the medievalHôtel des Tournelles, near theBastille, where her husband had died, and between 1563 and 1568 acquired several pieces of land which she put together for her new residence. Construction began in 1564, withPhilibert de l'Orme working as chief architect. De l'Orme died in 1570, when the work was still in its early stages. His place was taken byJean Bullant. The1588 Day of the Barricades between Catholics and Protestants in the city abruptly halted the work; the unprotected site was abandoned and pillaged.[2]
Work did not resume until 1594, whenHenri IV made a triumphal return to Paris and recommenced construction of the Louvre and the Tuileries. He constructed theGrande Galerie, parallel to the Seine, which connected the two palaces. At the same time, Henri commissioned the landscape gardenerClaude Mollet to modify the plan of the gardens. The architects and decoratorsÉtienne Dupérac,Louis Métezeau, andJacques II Androuet du Cerceau contributed to the new palace.[3] Androuet du Cerceau contributed thePavillon des Tuileries, a tower that linked the Louvre and Tuileries palaces.[4]
Louis XIV and Louis XV – enlargement and departure (17th and 18th centuries)
The Tuileries Palace (in foreground) and its garden, in plan engraved byMatthäus Merian the Elder in 1615
The Tuileries Palace in the 17th century
Theold Louvre castle (background) and the Tuileries (foreground) linked by the Grande Galerie along the Seine, in 1615
Grand Carrousel of 1662 at the Tuileries under Louis XIV to celebrate the birth of his son Louis, Dauphin of France
After the death of Henri IV in 1610, work on the palace halted. His sonLouis XIII had no intention of continuing construction. Work did not resume until after the end of theFronde in 1653. Between 1659 and 1661,Louis XIV andCardinal Mazarin hadLouis Le Vau enlarge the palace, extending it to the north with the addition of theThéâtre des Tuileries.[5]
In 1662, Louis XIV celebrated the birth of his son and heir,Louis, Dauphin of France, with a spectacular 'Carrousel' held in the courtyard on the east side of the palace. The equestrian pageant, with dressage and other exercises, drew over 700 participants. It offered a variety of tournaments and competitions, including a contest in which horsemen were asked to spear the cardboard heads of 'Saracens' and 'Moors', as well as a series of mounted processions around the courtyard, complete with music. The King himself took part, dressed as a Roman emperor. The courtyard thereafter became known as the Carrousel.
From 1664 to 1666, Le Vau and his assistantFrançois d'Orbay made other significant changes. They transformed Philibert de l'Orme's façades and central pavilion, replacing its grand central staircase with acolonnaded vestibule on the ground floor and the Salle des Cents Suisses (Hall of the Hundred Swiss Guards) on the floor above. They also added a rectangular dome. A new grand staircase was installed in the entrance of the north wing of the palace, and lavishly decorated royal apartments were installed in the south wing. The King's rooms were on the ground floor, facing the Louvre, and the Queen's on the floor above, overlooking the garden. At the same time, Louis' gardener,André Le Nôtre, redesigned the Tuileries Garden.[6]
Louis XIV fully used his redecorated and enlarged palace for only a short time. The court moved into the Tuileries Palace in November 1667 but left in 1672, and soon thereafter settled in thePalace of Versailles. The Tuileries Palace was virtually abandoned and used only as a theatre, but its gardens became a fashionable resort for Parisians.[7]
Following the death of Louis XIV in December 1715, his great-grandson,Louis XV, just five years old, was moved from Versailles to the Tuileries Palace on 1 January 1716. The palace had been rarely used in forty years; it was refurnished and redecorated for the new King, but he remained only until 15 June 1722, when he returned to Versailles, three months before his coronation. Both moves were made at the behest of the regent,Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. The King also resided at the Tuileries for short periods in the 1740s.[8] The large palace theatre continued to be used as a venue for operas, concerts and performances of theComédie-Française.[9]
Louis XVI – Royal sanctuary and revolutionary battleground
Manned balloon flight ofJacques Charles taking off at Tuileries Palace, 1 December 1783
Louis XVI and family celebrate Mass at the Tuileries Palace
Storming of the Tuileries Palace on 10 August 1792 and the massacre of the Swiss Guard
Meeting of the National Convention in the Salle du Manège in August 1792
On 1 December 1783, the palace garden was the starting point of a major event in aviation history—the first manned flight in a hydrogen balloon, byJacques Charles and theRobert brothers. It took place just two months after the first manned balloon flight by theMontgolfier brothers in a hot air balloon from the Palace of Versailles. KingLouis XVI watched from the tower. Among the crowd of spectators wasBenjamin Franklin, the United States ambassador to France. The balloon and its passengers landed safely atNesles-la-Vallée, around 50 kilometres from Paris.[10]
On 6 October 1789, Louis XVI and his family were forced to leave Versailles for Paris, moving into the Tuileries. Nothing had been prepared for their arrival; the various occupants who had moved into the palace were abruptly expelled, and furniture had to be brought from Versailles. The royal family lived in relative calm for a time; the gardens were reserved for them until noon when they were opened to the public.[10]
On 21 June 1791, as the Revolution intensified and their safety became increasingly compromised, the King and his family attempted to leave Paris. That night they attended a finalVespers Mass in the palace chapel, and then, disguised and with their attendants, attempted to reachMontmédy by coach. They were stopped and arrested inVarennes, brought back to Paris, and placed under house arrest.[11]
On10 August 1792 a large mob stormed the gates, entered the gardens, and overwhelmed and massacred theSwiss Guards who were defending the palace. They set fires in several of the outlying buildings of the palace. Vestiges of buildings destroyed by the fires were discovered during archaeological excavations in 1989.[12] After the massacre of the Swiss Guards, the palace itself was taken over by thesans-culottes. In November 1792, the invaders discovered thearmoire de fer, a safe in the royal apartments, believed to contain the secret correspondence of Louis XVI with other European powers, appealing for help. This increased anger against the imprisoned royal family. The National Convention, first meeting in the Salle du Manège and from 10 May 1793 in the remodelled Salle des Machines in the palace, launched theReign of Terror in 1793–94, leading to theexecution of the King, his wifeMarie Antoinette, his sisterMadame Élisabeth, and thousands of others accused of opposing the Revolution.[13]
Military review in front of Napoleon's new triumphal arch in the courtyard byHippolyte Bellangé, 1810
Napoleon on his throne at the Tuileries Palace, 1810
A banquet in the Salle de Spectacle of the Tuileries, 1810
On 19 February 1799,Napoleon Bonaparte moved his residence from thePetit Luxembourg to the Tuileries, a more suitable setting for his imperial ambitions.Charles Percier andPierre Fontaine began redesigning the interior in theNeoclassicalEmpire style. Napoleon also began a series of reconstructions around the palace, tearing down the ruins of buildings burned during the Revolution. In 1806, in the centre of the courtyard of the Carrousel, he ordered the construction of atriumphal arch modelled after the ancientArch of Septimius Severus inRome to serve as the ceremonial gateway of the palace. In 1808, after he proclaimed himself emperor, he moved forward with the grand project ofHenri IV. This project entailed the construction of a new wing of the palace on the north side of the gardens, which would match the existing wing on the south side. This wing would connect the Tuileries with the Louvre. This involved tearing down the Manège and other buildings to clear the courtyard, and the construction of a new street, theRue de Rivoli, was carried out. The Hall of the National Convention in the former Salle des Machines was remodelled as a theatre which could easily be reconfigured as a large banquet hall.[14]
After Napoleon's divorce,Pierre-Paul Prud'hon was commissioned to design the apartments of his new wife,Marie Louise. Her bridal suite was decorated with furniture and interior decorations in theGreek Revival style. The son of Napoleon and Marie Louise was born in 1811. He was given a residence in the Waterside Gallery of the Louvre, connected to the Tuileries by a short underground passageway, and his own small pavilion in the courtyard, decorated by Fontaine.[15]
Palace of the Bourbon Restoration, Louis Philippe d'Orléans, and Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte
The throne room seized by a mob in the French Revolution of 1848
The Tuileries (foreground) andLouvre (centre) in 1860
Garden façade
Following the defeat and exile of Napoleon, the gardens became a large camp forRussian andPrussian soldiers, while the House of Bourbon returned to the palace during theBourbon Restoration. During theJuly Revolution of 1830, which installedLouis Philippe d'Orléans as the new monarch, the Tuileries was again stormed and occupied by an armed mob. Louis Philippe used the palace until 1848, when he was overthrown by theFrench Revolution of 1848.[13]
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon, was elected as the firstPresident of France in 1848 and first moved into theÉlysée Palace. In 1852, when he could not run again, he proclaimed himself emperor and moved his residence to the Tuileries. The Tuileries was extensively refurbished and redecorated after the looting and damage that had occurred during the Revolution of 1848. Imposing staterooms were designed and richly decorated in what became known as theSecond Empire style. The prominent roof lines of the palace, and especially its square central dome, became influential prototypes; they were adopted for hotels and commercial buildings, as well as government buildings and residences both in France and abroad. The new staterooms were theatrical settings for the ceremonies and pageantry of the Second Empire, such as the visit ofQueen Victoria in 1855. The old buildings that had filled the courtyard were cleared away; and the northern wing of the Louvre along the Rue de Rivoli, linking the Tuileries Palace with the Louvre, was completed.[16]
The private apartment used by Louis-Napoléon, on the ground floor of the palace's southern wing, consisted of 'gilt boxes furnished in the style of the First Empire.' His rooms were known to be kept at extremely high temperatures, per his request and were filled with smoke, as he smoked cigarette after cigarette. Napoleon III's bedroom was decorated with a talisman fromCharlemagne (a symbol of good luck for the Bonaparte family), while his office featured a portrait ofJulius Caesar byIngres and a large map of Paris that he used to show his ideas for the reconstruction of Paris to his prefect of the Seine department, BaronGeorges-Eugène Haussmann. His wife,Eugénie de Montijo, had her apartment, comprising 8 of the 11 rooms on thepiano nobile of the southern wing's garden side, above, connected to her husband's by a winding staircase, highly decorated in Louis XVI style with a pink salon, a green salon and a blue salon. Along this staircase was a mezzanine occupied by the treasurer of the privy purse.[17]
The state rooms of the south wing—located on the side facing east to the Carrousel—were used variously, depending on the occasion. At informal dinners, the household would gather in the private drawing room, or Salon d'Apollon, which was separated from the Salle des Maréchaux, in the central pavilion, by the First Consul's Room, or Salon Blanc. The party would proceed through the throne room to dinner in the Salon Louis XIV. However, gala dinners were held in the larger Galerie de Diane, the southernmost of the state apartments. If it were a state ball, then refreshments would be set up in the Galerie; and the procession of the party would be from there to the Salle de Maréchaux, which occupied the space of two entire floors of the central Pavillon de l'Horloge and served as the ballroom.[17]
The little-used northern wing of the palace, which contained the chapel, the Galerie de la Paix, and the Salle de Spectacle, was used only for performances, such as theDaniel Auber cantata performed on the evening of Louis-Napoléon and Eugénie's civil wedding ceremony, 29 July 1853, or for important fêtes, such as the party given for sovereigns attending theInternational Exposition on 10 June 1867.[18] The Salle de Spectacle was also used as a hospital during theFranco-Prussian War.[19]
Between 1864 and 1868, Napoleon III asked that the Pavillon de Flore, now the southernmost pavilion, be redesigned byHector Lefuel to match his other modifications to the palaces.[4] It served as the backstairs to the palace, served by a network of service corridors. From the Pavillon de Flore, one could access the sprawling basement, lit with innumerable gas lamps, where a railway had been set up to bring food from the kitchens under the Rue de Rivoli.[20]
Burning of the Palace by Paris Commune, 23–24 May 1871
Palace façade after the arson
Main hall after the arson
Galerie de la Paix after the arson
Ruins of the Palace after the arson, with walls intact
On 23 May 1871, during the suppression of theParis Commune, 12 men under the orders of the Commune's former chief military commander Jules Bergeret set the Tuileries on fire usingpetroleum, liquidtar, andturpentine. The fire lasted 48 hours and thoroughly gutted the palace, with the exception of the foundations and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.[21][22] The dome itself was blown up by explosives placed in the central pavilion and detonated by the fires. In his note to theCommittee of Public Safety, Bergeret said, 'The last vestiges of Royalty have just disappeared. I wish that the same may befall all the public buildings of Paris.'[23] It was not until 25 May that the Paris fire brigades and the 26th battalion of theChasseurs d'Afrique managed to put out the fire. The library and other portions of theLouvre were also set on fire by Communards and entirely destroyed. The museum itself was saved by the efforts of firemen.
The ruins of the Tuileries stood on the site for 11 years. Although the roofs and the inside of the palace had been utterly destroyed by the fire, the stone walls of the palace remained intact and restoration was possible. Other monuments of Paris also set on fire by Communards, such as theCity Hall, were rebuilt in the 1870s. After much hesitation, theThird Republic, more sympathetic to the Commune, pardoned the Commune members exiled abroad. In 1882, despite opposition fromGeorges-Eugène Haussmann and historians, they had the walls torn down.[24]
Palace interior cleaned up after the arson (1871–1883)
Palace portal after the fire (1871–1883)
Ruins of the grand staircase (1871–1883)
A vestige of the palace now in the gardens of the Palais du Trocadéro
The Tuileries Garden (French:Jardin des Tuileries) covers 22.4 hectares (55 acres); is surrounded by the Louvre (to the east), the Seine (to the south), thePlace de la Concorde (to the west) and theRue de Rivoli (to the north); and still closely follows the design laid out by the royallandscape architectAndré Le Nôtre in 1664. TheJeu de Paume is a museum of contemporary art located in the northwest corner of the garden.[27]
Originally designed in 1564 as anItalian Renaissance garden by Bernard de Carnesse, the Tuileries Garden was redesigned in 1664 by Le Nôtre as ajardin à la française, which emphasised symmetry, order, and long perspectives.[28] His formal garden plan drew out the perspective from the reflecting pools one to the other in an unbroken vista along a central axis from the west palace façade, which has been extended as theAxe historique.
This straight line which runs through thePlace de la Concorde and theArc de Triomphe toLa Défense was originally centred on the façade of the Tuileries, a similar line leading across the entrance court of the Louvre. As the two façades were placed at slightly differing angles, this resulted in a slight 'kink' on the site of the palace, a feature ultimately dictated by the curved course of theSeine.
After the palace was demolished in 1883, the large empty space between the northern and southern wings of the Louvre, familiar to modern visitors, was opened onto the unbrokenAxe historique.
Le Nôtre's central axis of the Tuileries'parterres in a late 17th-century engravingThe same view today, past the palace's site to theLouvre Palace
In 2003, a group called the Committee for the Reconstruction of the Tuileries (French:Comité national pour la reconstruction des Tuileries)[29][30] proposed the reconstruction of the Tuileries on its original site.Proponents of the plan noted that much of the original furniture and paintings still existed, put into storage when theFranco-Prussian War began in 1870.
In 2006 a rebuilding of the Tuileries Palace was estimated to cost 300 million euros (£200 millionpounds sterling or US$380 million). The plan was to finance the project by public subscription with the work being undertaken by a private foundation, with the French government spending no money on the project. The French president at that time,Jacques Chirac, called for a debate on the subject. Former presidentCharles de Gaulle had also supported reconstruction, saying that it would "make a jewel of the centre of Paris."[22]
However, in 2008, Michel Clément, Director of Architecture and Heritage, stated: "From our point of view, the reconstruction of the Tuileries Palace is not a priority. In addition, it is not part of French heritage culture to resurrect monuments out of the groundex nihilo. Rather, we are concerned with the vestiges that have survived."[30]
Ballon, Hilary (1991).The Paris of Henri IV: Architecture and Urbanism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.ISBN9780262023092.
Coeyman, Barbara (1998). "Opera and Ballet in Seventeenth-Century French Theatres: Case Studies of the Salle des Machines and the Palais Royal Theater" in Radice 1998, pp. 37–71.
Devêche, André (1981).The Tuileries Palace and Gardens, translated by Jonathan Eden. Paris: Éditions de la Tourelle-Maloine.OCLC461768004,13623823.
Hautecoeur, Louis (1927).L'Histoire des Chateaux du Louvre et des Tuileries. Paris: G. Van Oest.OCLC1748382,250838397.
Jacquin, Emmanuel (2000).Les Tuileries, Du Louvre à la Concorde. Paris: Editions du Patrimoine, Centres des Monuments Nationaux.ISBN978-2-85822-296-4.
Radice, Mark A., editor (1998).Opera in Context: Essays on Historical Staging from the Late Renaissance to the Time of Puccini. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press.ISBN9781574670325.
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