Tuileries Palace
The Tuileries Palace was a palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the Seine, directly in the west-front of the Louvre Palace. It was the Parisian residence of most French monarchs, from Henri IV to Napoleon III, until it was burned by the Paris Commune in 1871 and demolished in 1883.
Construction began in 1564, originally to serve as a home for Queen Catherine 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 the Tuileries Garden, forming an elevated terrace between the Place du Carrousel and the gardens proper.
History
Plan of Catherine de' Medici (16th century)
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 present Rue Saint-Honoré. The land was occupied by the workshops and kilns craftsmen who made 'tuiles', or roof tiles. Because of its proximity to the Louvre Castle, members of the royal family began buying plots of land there.After the death of Henri II in 1559, his widow Catherine 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 medieval Hôtel des Tournelles, near the Bastille, 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, with Philibert 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 by Jean Bullant. The 1588 Day of the Barricades between Catholics and Protestants in the city abruptly halted the work; the unprotected site was abandoned and pillaged.
Additions of Henri IV
Work did not resume until 1594, when Henri IV made a triumphal return to Paris and recommenced construction of the Louvre and the Tuileries. He constructed the Grande Galerie, parallel to the Seine, which connected the two palaces. At the same time, Henri commissioned the landscape gardener Claude Mollet to modify the plan of the gardens. The architects and decorators Étienne Dupérac, Louis Métezeau, and Jacques II Androuet du Cerceau contributed to the new palace. Androuet du Cerceau contributed the Pavillon des Tuileries, a tower that linked the Louvre and Tuileries palaces.Louis XIV and Louis XV – enlargement and departure (17th and 18th centuries)
After the death of Henri IV in 1610, work on the palace halted. His son Louis XIII had no intention of continuing construction. Work did not resume until after the end of the Fronde in 1653. Between 1659 and 1661, Louis XIV and Cardinal Mazarin had Louis Le Vau enlarge the palace, extending it to the north with the addition of the Théâtre des Tuileries.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 assistant François d'Orbay made other significant changes. They transformed Philibert de l'Orme's façades and central pavilion, replacing its grand central staircase with a colonnaded vestibule on the ground floor and the Salle des Cents Suisses 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.
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 the Palace of Versailles. The Tuileries Palace was virtually abandoned and used only as a theatre, but its gardens became a fashionable resort for Parisians.
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. The large palace theatre continued to be used as a venue for operas, concerts and performances of the Comédie-Française.
Louis XVI – Royal sanctuary and revolutionary battleground
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, by Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers. It took place just two months after the first manned balloon flight by the Montgolfier brothers in a hot air balloon from the Palace of Versailles. King Louis XVI watched from the tower. Among the crowd of spectators was Benjamin Franklin, the United States ambassador to France. The balloon and its passengers landed safely at Nesles-la-Vallée, around 50 kilometres from Paris.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.
On 9 November 1789 the National Constituent Assembly moved its meetings from Versailles to the Salle du Manège. This was the Tuileries' covered equestrian academy, on the north side of the palace, which was the largest meeting hall in the city. It was also used by the Assembly's successor, the National Convention and, in 1795, the Council of Five Hundred of the Directory until the body moved to the Palais Bourbon in 1798. In 1799, the Jacobin Club du Manège had its headquarters there. The Committee of Public Safety, led by Robespierre, met in the Pavillon de Flore.
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 final Vespers Mass in the palace chapel, and then, disguised and with their attendants, attempted to reach Montmédy by coach. They were stopped and arrested in Varennes, brought back to Paris, and placed under house arrest.
On 10 August 1792 a large mob stormed the gates, entered the gardens, and overwhelmed and massacred the Swiss 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. After the massacre of the Swiss Guards, the palace itself was taken over by the sans-culottes. In November 1792, the invaders discovered the armoire 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 the Reign of Terror in 1793–94, leading to the execution of the King, his wife Marie Antoinette, his sister Madame Élisabeth, and thousands of others accused of opposing the Revolution.
Napoleon Bonaparte
On 19 February 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte moved his residence from the Petit Luxembourg to the Tuileries, a more suitable setting for his imperial ambitions. Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine began redesigning the interior in the Neoclassical Empire 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 a triumphal arch modelled after the ancient Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome to serve as the ceremonial gateway of the palace. In 1808, after he proclaimed himself emperor, he moved forward with the grand project of Henri 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, the Rue 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.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 the Greek 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.