Hôtel de la Marine: The Royal Treasure House
Why is it significant?
Look up at the long colonnade on the north side of the square. Behind those columns there is a loggia, a covered balcony, and from it you can see the whole of the Concorde, the river and the Eiffel Tower. For more than two hundred years only kings' servants and admirals stood up there.
Key Facts
| Place | Hôtel de la Marine: The Royal Treasure House |
|---|---|
| Address | 2 Place de la Concorde, 75008 Paris, France |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.86690, 2.32350 |
| Part of Walk | Triumph and Guillotine: The Champs-Élysées from the Arc de Triomphe to Concorde, Paris |
| Generated | Generated |
Look up at the long colonnade on the north side of the square. Behind those columns there is a loggia, a covered balcony, and from it you can see the whole of the Concorde, the river and the Eiffel Tower. For more than two hundred years only kings' servants and admirals stood up there.
The building was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the architect of the square, and it was the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne: the storehouse of the royal furniture, tapestries, weapons... and the crown jewels. The public was even allowed in, on certain days, to admire the royal treasures. In a way it was one of the first museums in Paris. The intendant who ran it lived here in style, and his apartments, with their silk walls and gilded panelling, have been brought back to life.
In September 1792, in the chaos after the fall of the monarchy, a gang of thieves climbed up the façade over several nights and walked off with most of the crown jewels. Some were found, like the great Regent diamond. Others vanished. A huge blue diamond, the French Blue, reappeared years later in London, re-cut... and is known today as the Hope Diamond.
From 1789 the building housed the Ministry of the Navy, for more than two centuries. It was here, in April 1848, that the decree abolishing slavery in the French colonies was signed, the work of Victor Schœlcher, who campaigned for it all his life. And from these windows, during the Revolution, officials could watch the guillotine working in the square below.
When the Navy left in 2015, the building was restored, and it opened to the public in 2021: gilded salons, the apartments of the eighteenth-century intendant, and that loggia with its view. Now walk up the Rue Royale, the straight street beside it, towards the giant temple at the end.