Tuileries Palace

Up to 1871 the Tuileries Palace was a palace in Paris, France, on the right bank of the River Seine.

Rebuilding the Tuileries?

Since 2003, in France, a committee has been proposing to rebuild the Tuileries Palace. This effort is similar to the proposal of reconstruction of the Berliner Stadtschloss. There are several reasons for rebuilding the Palace of the Tuileries. Ever since the destruction of 1883, the famous perspective of the Champs-Élysées, which ended on the majestic facade of the Tuileries Palace, now ends in a large empty space. The Louvre with its pyramid on the one hand and the axis of the Place de la Concorde-Champs-Élysées-Arc de Triomphe on the other hand are not aligned on the same axis. The Palace of the Tuileries, which was located at the junction of these two diverging axes, helped to correct this bending of the axes. Famous architects say the rebuilding of the Tuileries would allow to reestablish the harmony of these two different axes. The Tuileries Gardens would also recover their purpose, which was to be a palace garden.

Related Topics:
2003 - Berliner Stadtschloss - 1883 - Champs-Élysées - Place de la Concorde - Arc de Triomphe

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Also, it is emphasized that the Louvre Museum needs to extend its groundplan to properly display all its collections, and if the Tuileries Palace was rebuilt, the Louvre Museum could expand into the rebuilt palace. It is also proposed to rebuild the state apartments of the Second Empire as they stood in 1871. All the plans of the palace and many photographs are still stored in French archives, which would make it easy to rebuild the palace and its rooms exactly as they stood in 1871. Furthermore, all the furniture and paintings from the palace survived the 1871 fire, because they had been removed from the palace in 1870 at the start of the Franco-Prussian War, and stored in secure locations. Today, these furniture and paintings are still deposited in storehouses and not on public display due to the lack of space in the Louvre Museum. It is argued that recreating the state apartments of the Tuileries Palace would allow display these treasures of Second Empire style which are currently hidden away from the public.

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A rebuilding of the Palace of the Tuileries is estimated to cost 300 million euros (US$ 365 million). It would be financed by public subscription, and the work would be undertaken by a private foundation, with the French government spending no money in the project. Since 2003, the idea has gained momentum in French media, but it remains to be seen whether such a rebuilding will ever happen. It would be the largest construction project undertaken in the center of Paris since the early 20th century.

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