Palais Royal
- Details
- Published on Monday, 25 July 2011 05:23
- Hits: 214
At first, it was the residence of Cardinal de Richelieu and was called the Palais Royal. In 1629, construction began and was led by architect Jacques Lemercier.A theatre is situated by the ends of the galleries. The bigger gallery houses Comédie Française is a known company of state theatre since the reign of Napoleon.In 1641, Lemercier made the primary theater for Cardinal de Richelieu. Under the reign of Louis XIV, the theatre became the host for plays done by Molière starting in 1660 until he died in 1673. Then it became an opera as directed by Jean-Baptiste Lully. After some time, Richelieu gave the palace to the French Crown. A few months passed and it became home of Queen-Mother Anne of Austria and the young Louis XIV.
Now, it is the home of Conseil d'État, the Constitutional Council, the State Council as well as the Ministry of Culture. By the back portion of the garden, there are older buildings of Bibliothèque nationale de France, which is the national library of deposit where there is a collection of around 60,000 books, maps, documents and prints available. The majority of the said collections were transferred to modern places all over the country.