In June 2021 a new museum opened in Paris, though it would be more accurate to say it reopened, after being closed for 223 years. The Hôtel de la Marine first opened as a museum in 1778, some 15 years before the opening of the Louvre Museum. Here’s a short video to set the mood:
Museum, you ask? Let’s dive into the fascinating story of this impressive building that towers over the Place de la Concorde and has witnessed the most important events in Paris over the past 260 years.
The Story of Hôtel de la Marine
Place Louis XV
The story of Hôtel de la Marine begins in 1748, when the city of Paris decided to commission a statue of King Louis XV on horseback from the sculptor Edme Bouchardon, and went looking for a fitting place to put it. Louis XV, together with the man in charge of royal buildings, Abel-François Poisson (brother of Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, better known as Madame de Pompadour), wanted to build a square that would outshine Place Vendôme, which Louis XIV had built with a statue of the Sun King on horseback at its center.
The trouble was that Paris at the time was a crowded, dirty city, and there was no room to be found for a square as large and impressive as one meant to display the king’s statue. So a site was chosen outside the city, land that belonged to the king, right at the edge of the Tuileries Garden, in what was then called the Champs-Élysées (the Elysian Fields). Since this was the edge of the city, the square was meant to mark its western boundary.
No fewer than 19 proposals were reviewed over five years, but the king wasn’t satisfied with any of them, until he finally appointed the architect of the Petit Trianon at Versailles, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, to the task.
The square, originally called Place Louis XV, was bordered by the Champs-Élysées to the west, the Seine to the south, and the Tuileries Garden to the east, but its northern edge remained open, since that area wasn’t built up, and from the square you could see the original Église de la Madeleine without any obstruction. To solve this and create a fitting backdrop for the statue, Gabriel was asked to build two monumental, identical twin buildings in the neoclassical style.
The Hollow Twins
They decided to build them quickly, but alas, the buildings had no purpose yet, and nobody knew what would go inside them, especially since it would take a long time to complete two buildings of that scale. The solution was to build them as stage sets, literally. Hôtel de la Marine and its twin, Hôtel Crillon, were originally built as hollow façades, without the large structures that stand behind them today, and anyone standing in front of them could see the sky and birds flying through the windows.
But don’t worry, the buildings were completed over the following years, and in 1765 something happened: it was decided to turn the right-hand building into the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne (the Royal Furniture Depository), the place where all the furniture, decorative accessories and ornaments used in royal buildings would be stored, maintained and managed, along with the collection of weapons, armor and crown jewels. At first the Garde-Meuble occupied only part of the building, but within just two years it ran out of space and had to spread across the entire building, officially becoming the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne.
The First Museum in Paris Opens to the Public
The building, arranged around an inner courtyard, housed behind its impressive façade the residence of the head of the Garde-Meuble, which included, on the floor behind the colonnade, grand salons meant to receive dignitaries, and on the floor above, his private apartments and offices.
The first to occupy the place was Pierre-Élisabeth de Fontanieu, followed by Marc-Antoine Thierry de Ville-d’Avray, who was the one who decided to open the Garde-Meuble to the public on certain days of the week so people could view the royal treasures, effectively turning the place into the first museum in Paris.
Place Louis XV Becomes Place de la Révolution
We all know that the opening shot of the French Revolution was the storming of the Bastille, with weapons looted that same morning from Les Invalides. But what’s less known is that the weapons the crowd used to storm Les Invalides were taken from the display at Hôtel de la Marine, including precious, ornate weapons that had been given to the king as gifts by foreign dignitaries and were meant only for display.
Legend has it that the first cannon fired at the Bastille was an ornate, silver-plated cannon that the King of Siam had given to Louis XIV as a gift during his historic visit in 1684, looted from the Hôtel de la Marine the day before.
The years of the Revolution showed no mercy to any building that had belonged to the monarchy or the nobility, and many of them were looted, vandalized or simply neglected. The same happened to the Hôtel de la Marine, which on one hand still held valuable treasures. On the other hand, in a period with no security, when every scoundrel could be king, the place suffered from security problems, which led to wild parties being held there, and valuable items still stored on site were stolen.
So, for example, on the night of September 16, 1792, a gang of about 40 people broke into the hôtel and stole the crown jewels that were on display in the entrance hall. Jewels worth 30 million francs vanished and were never found.
From the Guillotine’s Royal Box to the Headquarters of the French Navy
The statue of Louis XV, dressed as a Roman emperor and riding a horse without a saddle, was toppled and smashed to pieces when the Revolution broke out (a model of the statue is on display at Musée Carnavalet, alongside the only surviving fragment of the original: a giant bronze hand). The statue was replaced by a guillotine, which worked nonstop through the Reign of Terror, beheading the great and the famous.
Some of its “customers” were King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, Madame du Barry, and senior revolutionaries like Danton and Robespierre. And so the balcony, decorated with Greek columns, on the façade of the Hôtel de la Marine became the most coveted viewing spot for executions, a kind of royal box for the guillotine’s shows.
The Reign of Terror ended with the execution of Robespierre, ushering in a new era for the square and the Hôtel de la Marine. In 1795 the square changed its name once again, from Place de la Révolution to Place de la Concorde (Concord), as a kind of act of reconciliation after years of hardship soaked in blood.
That same year it was decided to give the Garde-Meuble building a new purpose, one it would hold for the next 226 years: the headquarters of the French Navy. That’s how it got its current name, Hôtel de la Marine.
The reason the Navy got this impressive building was simply that it was already there from the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789. At first it occupied just a few rooms, and only about six years later did the Navy take over the entire building and officially make it its headquarters, until it was vacated in 2015 for thorough renovation and preservation work, with the goal of turning it into a museum and reopening it to the public.
From Headquarters to Museum
If you’re wondering what happened to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne and the thousands of precious items it held, the answer is that the Garde-Meuble, being tied to the monarchy, was dissolved and dismantled, and all its contents were either sold, destroyed or stolen. But it didn’t disappear entirely: the restoration of the monarchy in France and the imperial rule of the Bonapartes created a renewed need for such an institution.
That’s why it was reestablished, and over the course of the 19th century it went through several transformations until it became the Mobilier National, which still exists today and is responsible, much like its royal predecessor, for all the furniture, decorative accessories and ornaments of France’s government buildings.
When it was decided in 2015 to turn the place into a museum, the goal was to restore it, as much as possible, to its days as the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne under Marc-Antoine Thierry de Ville-d’Avray, with the décor and furnishings that filled it in the 18th century. But the damage from the Revolution and the centuries during which the building served as Navy headquarters, closed to the public the whole time, created an enormous and costly challenge for those put in charge of the project.
The Centre des Monuments Nationaux, responsible for preserving, maintaining, managing and rescuing historic buildings across France, took on the monumental task of restoring and renovating the building and turning it into an accessible, state-of-the-art museum. About 130 million euros were allocated for the project, which funded three years of renovation work, during which employees of more than forty different companies worked across 12,700 square meters.
To start a project of this scale, the building first had to be surveyed, and to everyone’s surprise, beneath the additions made in the 19th and 20th centuries, rich 18th-century décor was discovered. But before any restoration work could begin, the building first had to be returned to its original form.
During the years the Navy occupied the building, it had been altered to suit its needs, mainly to add office space. This was done by subdividing the rooms and lowering the ceilings. In the process, the original décor was covered up, and modern features like elevators and communication systems were installed. Once this stage of clearing out was complete, work began on restoring and recreating the 18th-century décor.
For this, two period interior designers were brought in, Joseph Achkar and his partner Michel Charrière, both considered top names in period décor design, and owners of one of the city’s most splendid hôtels, the Hôtel de Jouarre, which they furnished and decorated with great talent.
But back to the Place de la Concorde: the two talented designers were given a generous budget and set off on an unprecedented hunt for antiques, going through the storerooms of the Mobilier National and also shopping with the top antique dealers in France.
They bought furniture by Riesener, found antique fabrics, marble fountains, statues and paintings, lamps and ornate wood paneling, all to create a rich décor that would recreate the look of the hôtel as it was in the 18th century. The result is breathtaking and heartwarming: they managed to create a museum that rivals other distinguished 18th-century museums in Paris, like Musée Nissim de Camondo, Musée Jacquemart-André, Cognacq-Jay, Carnavalet, and even the Louvre.
An 18th-Century Museum with 21st-Century Technology: A Tour of the Hôtel de la Marine
On June 12, 2021, the hôtel opened after President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated it a few days earlier, as the Navy guard bid farewell to the building and handed it over to the public, who wasted no time and began flocking to the place.
Visitors who enter through the main entrance on Place de la Concorde arrive directly in the central courtyard, and from there enter the hôtel through the grand lobby. But before we can go up to the salons, we need to pass by the ticket counter (even if tickets were bought online) to pick up sophisticated headphones with surround sound capability, which will accompany us throughout the tour. The ticket counter is located in the courtyard of the head of the Garde-Meuble, from which he used to reach his apartments via a side staircase. As part of the renovation, the courtyard was covered with an impressive glass ceiling that is a work of art in its own right.
Note that there are two possible tours: one covers only the grand salons and the famous balcony overlooking the square, and the other is a full tour that lets you visit the entire building, including the 18th-century private apartments of Marc-Antoine Thierry de Ville-d’Avray. Needless to say, the full tour is a must.
Now that we’re equipped with headphones, let’s head back to the central courtyard and go up to the grand salons. The salons we see today were built in the mid-19th century and are not the original ones that stood there. They were built in great splendor to receive dignitaries, and their décor incorporates maritime motifs and symbols of the Republican Navy.
During the 19th century, grand balls were held there. The first was hosted by Napoleon Bonaparte for representatives from across Europe, to show them that France had returned to its former glory. Many more followed: one to celebrate the coronation of Charles X, another in honor of Napoleon III. Each era had its own dignitaries.
During the tour, the headphones start playing on their own, and narrators tell the history of the place in French. There are also interactive screens in the salons, and when you get close to them you hear what they’re showing. It’s a special experience, though at times it was a bit distracting.
The large salon is the Salon d’Honneur, where the portraits of admirals from the monarchy’s days before the Revolution are painted on wood panels. After we finish passing through the salons and the grand meeting rooms, we reach the loggia, the covered balcony hidden behind the row of impressive classical columns, which offers a breathtaking view of the square with Les Invalides on the horizon.
Once we finish the visit on this floor, we go down the grand staircase toward the central courtyard and back to the covered courtyard, from which we go up the side staircase to Ville-d’Avray’s private apartments.
First you enter a lobby, followed by a series of wonderful rooms decorated in the finest 18th-century style. You’ll find bedrooms, salons, offices and bathrooms there, which served the head of the Garde-Meuble and his wife, where they intimately hosted high society, artists and philosophers, as was customary in the 18th century.
In addition to the display of the 18th-century salons and rooms, a restaurant called Mimosa, by chef Jean-François Piège, has also opened on site. In November 2021, the Al Thani Collection also opened here, named after the Qatari foundation that supports art around the world and helped fund this project.
The Hôtel de la Marine is yet another milestone in the world’s museum capital, a city that never stops innovating and surprising. When it comes to the level of excellence in restoration, recreation, design, accessibility and advanced technology, there’s nothing else like it in the world. Just when I thought I’d seen everything, Paris managed to surprise me again, giving me plenty of good reasons to come back again and again and again.
So on your next trip to the City of Light, set aside some time to visit the Hôtel de la Marine. I assume you already know how to get there. It’s worth buying tickets online in advance. The main visit costs 17 euros, and visitors under 18 and EU residents aged 18–25 get in free.
Important Information for Visitors
Now that we’ve covered the fascinating history of the place and given you a visual taste of what to expect, all that’s left is to help you plan your visit. Here’s what you need to know:
How to Get There
Address: 2 Place de la Concorde
The easiest way to get there is via metro lines 1, 8 or 12 (get off at the Concorde station).
Where to Buy Tickets
Here are a few ticket options that will save you from waiting in line:
- Ticket for Hôtel de la Marine
- Ticket for Hôtel de la Marine (including the rooms of the Keeper of the Royal Furniture)
- Combined ticket for Hôtel de la Marine and Fondation Louis Vuitton
- Combined ticket for Hôtel de la Marine and Musée Marmottan Monet
What Days and Hours Is the Museum Open?
The museum is open every day from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., except on Fridays, when it stays open until 10:00 p.m. instead of 7:00 p.m.
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