Institut de France

The Institut de France in Paris is a monumental landmark housing five learned academies, built on the site of a scandalous medieval guard tower. Designed by architect Louis Le Vau using a 1661 bequest of two million pounds from Cardinal Mazarin, the building features a dome that appears circular outside but oval inside. In 1805, Napoleon moved the Académie Française into this historic complex.

Paris · from the walk “From the Cathedral to the Iron Lady” · audio ~3 min · Generated

Institut de France, 23 quai de Conti, Paris

What architectural trick did Louis Le Vau design for the dome of the Institut de France?

Look at that magnificent dome rising above the Left Bank of the Seine. The Institu de France... one of the most beautiful buildings in all of Pari. But this elegant palace of learning is hiding a very dark secret beneath its foundations.......... Before this dome ever existed, a grim medieval tower stood right Here. The Tour de Nesle... a twenty-five meter tall cylindrical guard tower, built around twelve hundred by King Philip the Second as part of the old city walls. And in thirteen fourteen, it became the scene of one of the most shocking scandals in French history. Three daughters-in-law of King Philip the Fourth were accused of conducting secret love affairs with two knights inside that very tower. The lovers were tortured and executed in the most gruesome fashion imaginable. The princesses had their heads shaved and were locked away in underground dungeons. The scandal was so devastating it helped bring down the entire Capetian dynasty... and some historians argue it even set the stage for the Hundred Years' War.......... The tower was finally demolished in sixteen sixty-five. And what rose in its place? A college for young aristocrats, funded by the dying wish of Cardinal Mazaran. Just three days before his death in sixteen sixty-one, he signed the founding act and left two million pounds to build the Collège des Quatre-Nations... a school for students from territories newly conquered by France. He even insisted on being buried right here, in the chapel beneath that dome. His magnificent tomb, sculpted in sixteen ninety-three, still rests inside.......... The architect was Louis le Vau... the same genius behind the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte and the Palace of Versailles. And here is an architectural trick most people never notice. That dome? It appears perfectly circular from the Outside... but step inside, and it is actually Oval. A masterful illusion.......... In eighteen oh five, Napoleon moved the five academies here, including the most famous of them all... the Academie Française, guardians of the French language since sixteen thirty-five. Its forty members are known as the Immortels... the Immortals. And when they gather under this cupola, they wear embroidered black coats with green olive branches and carry ceremonial Swords... a tradition dating back to Napoleon himself. Each sword is a unique work of art, custom-designed to reflect the life of its owner. And if you're wondering what it costs to become an Immortal... one member reportedly spent around two hundred and thirty thousand dollars on the whole affair.......... So next time you gaze at that golden dome... remember. Beneath this temple of language and learning lie the ghosts of a medieval scandal, the tomb of a cardinal, and seven centuries of extraordinary stories.