Puzzles of the Conciergerie

Let's start with a beautiful image of the north facade of the Palais de la Cité!

The Conciergerie as you have never seen it before! An exceptional illumination intended to launch the breast cancer prevention and screening campaign organized each year throughout the month of October by the association "Le cancer du sein, parlons-en!"

Crédit photographie: JCDecaux/CMN

The Hall of Men-at-Arms

By its imposing dimensions: 68.80 meters long, originally 27.40 meters wide, the Hall of Men-at-Arms is the largest Gothic civil hall surviving in Europe. It was built at the beginning of the 14th century, during the reign of Philippe le Bel.

Located on the ground floor of the palace, on the service and staff level, it was used as a refectory by the very many servants and men of arms in the service of the king, around two thousand people.

Crédit photographie: Benjamin Gavaudo / Centre des monuments nationaux

The Royal Kitchens

Built around 1353 during the reign of John the Good and intended mainly for the "common" of the Hôtel du Roi - for the service people - the kitchen pavilion included two superimposed rooms: the king's kitchens upstairs and the kitchens of the common on the ground floor. At that time, this building was isolated from the rest of the Palace due, no doubt, to the risk of fire.

Following a consolidation and restoration campaign, the medieval kitchens of the Conciergerie have been open to visitors again since June 2016.

Crédit photographie: Hervé Lewandoswski/Centre des monuments nationaux

Marie Antoinette

The Conciergerie became one of the major places of detention during the 18th century French Revolution with the installation of the revolutionary tribunal. Its most famous prisoner is Marie-Antoinette. A commemorative chapel was built during the Restoration period on the site of her cell.

La reine Marie-Antoinette en habit de veuve à la prison de la Conciergerie 1793 par Alexandre Kucharski, Huile sur bois, XVIIIe siècle Collection : Centre des monuments nationaux

The openwork staircase of the Salle des Gens d'Armes

The staircase dates from the 19th century, the work of the architect Peyre.

Crédit photographie Benjamin Gavaudo /CMN

The Palace of the Cité  - Île de la Cité

Since Gallo-Roman times, the Île de la Cité has been divided into two poles. To the east, a spiritual pole where the temple was located and where the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral now stands; to the west a residential center with the construction of the palace of the Roman governor, a fortress surrounded by ramparts. The old fortress, enlarged and embellished in the 10th century, became the Palais de la Cité, the main residence of the kings of France.

Crédit photographie Benjamin Gavaudo /CMN

PARAVENTS (screens) - a work by Georges Rousse

Invited by the Centre des monuments nationaux in 2015, Georges Rousse, an international visual artist photographer, created a poetic and utopian work entitled Paravents (screens) in the hall of Men-at-Arms. This unique installation invites the visitor to experience another perception of space.

Crédit photographie © Didier Plowy/CMN

The Guard's Room

Built in 1310, under Philippe IV, the Salle des Gardes served as an antechamber to the Grand'Chambre upstairs, which has now disappeared, where the Parliament sat under the Ancien Régime

Crédit photographie Benjamin Gavaudo /CMN