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Introduction The origins of the Palais and its gardens go back to the sixteenth century. In 1564 Catherine de Médicis, the Queen Mother, decided to build herself a residence that would be independent of the Louvre while at the same time reasonably close to it. She selected for the site a wasteland to the west of the Louvre, between the Seine and the road leading to Saint-Germain-en-Laye (the present rue Saint-Honoré). The Palais des Tuileries was joined to the Louvre on the southern side by the Galerie du Louvre. After a number of modifications, the palace, started by Catherine de Médicis, was eventually completed by Henri IV and Louis XIII.
Simultaneously with the inception of the Tuileries palace, Catherine de Médicis ordered the laying out of gardens to the west. For a century from 1564 till 1664 the gardens and the palace were separated by a high wall and a small and dirty street, called the rue des Tuileries, which led to the river (its site is now occupied by the avenue du Général-Lemonnier). In 1664 Colbert asked André Le Nôtre to replace the gardens of Queen Catherine with gardens that would be worthy of the Palais des Tuileries. He removed the small street and in its place constructed broad stairs which formed a terrace, and opened up onto an esplanade from which it was possible to take in at a glance the whole of the palace.
The end of the Tuileries came in 1871. On March 26, 1871, the Paris Commune was proclaimed and the looting of the Tuileries began. On 23 May the palace was set on fire by members of the Commune; the fire raged for three days, at the end of which the palace was all but destroyed. Some fragments of the building did, however, survive; the Pozzo Di Borgo family bought the stones and used them to build a château in Corsica, near Ajaccio, in 1891.
After his election to the Institut de France in 1856, Berlioz (with his second wife Marie) regularly went to the Emperor’s monthly parties to which members of the Institute were invited.
We are grateful to Monsieur Patrick Barois and Monsieur Hervé Muraccioli for additional information regarding the Palais des Tuileries and the Jardin des Tuileries. This information has been incorporated in this page.
Illustrations Unless otherwise specified, all the modern photographs reproduced on this page were taken by Michel Austin; other pictures have been scanned from engravings and books in our own collection. © Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin. All rights of reproduction reserved.
The original copy of this painting by N Raguenet is in the Carnavalet Museum, Paris.
The two engravings above have been scanned from A. Pugin’s book Paris and its Environs, published in London in 1831.
This engraving dates from 1834.
This engraving dates from 1836.
This engraving is by Rouargue dated 1837.
This hand-coloured 19th century lithograph is by Fichot.
This 19th century engraving is by Thomas Allom.
A copy of this photograph is in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
This is a reproduction of a contemporary engraving.
The above three photographs have been scanned from John L. Stoddards Lectures, Volume V – Paris La Belle France and Spain, by John L. Stoddard (Balch Brothers, 1898).
© (unless otherwise stated) Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin for all the pictures and information on this page.
Copyright notice: The texts, photos, images and musical scores on all pages of this site are covered by UK Law and International Law. All rights of publication or reproduction of this material in any form, including Web page use, are reserved. Their use without our explicit permission is illegal.
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