Cultural Building sights in Paris
- Sort by:
- Popular
-
A
Institut de France
The French Institute, created in 1795, brought together five of France’s academies of arts and sciences. The most famous of these is the Académie Française (French Academy), founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu. Its 40 members, known as the Immortels (Immortals), have the Herculean (some say impossible) task of safeguarding the purity of the French language. The domed building housing the institute, across the Seine from the Louvre’s eastern end, is a masterpiece of French neoclassical architecture.
reviewed
-
B
Cabinet des Médailles et Monnaies
Housed in the original home of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France is this enormous hoard of coins, medals and tokens numbering more than 500, 000. There’s also an important collection of antiques, including items confiscated during the French Revolution from Ste-Chapelle and the abbey at St-Denis, including silverware, jewellery and the so-called Dagobert’s Throne, dating from the 7th century, on which French kings were once crowned.
reviewed
-
C
Archives Nationales
France’s National Archives are housed in the Soubise wing of the impressive, early 18th-century Hôtel de Rohan-Soubise.
reviewed
