Unspecified/General

Housed in a wing of the monumental Palais de Chaillot overlooking the Trocadero, the Cite de l'architecture et du patrimoine is the largest museum of architecture in the world and a place to understand the built heritage of France across nearly a thousand years. It opened in its present form in 2007, bringing together a museum of monuments founded in the nineteenth century with collections devoted to modern and contemporary architecture. Its most celebrated feature is the gallery of casts, the Galerie des moulages, where full-size plaster replicas of doorways, sculptures, columns and entire church portals from the Romanesque and Gothic ages stand together under one roof, allowing visitors to compare the great cathedrals and abbeys of the country without leaving Paris. Elsewhere, reconstructed murals and stained glass evoke the painted interiors of medieval churches, while the modern galleries trace the architecture of the past two centuries, including a walk-through full-scale apartment from Le Corbusier's famous housing block in Marseille. The museum also stages major temporary exhibitions on architecture, the city and design, and runs a school and a library for specialists. Its position in the Palais de Chaillot gives it one of the finest views in the city, looking straight across the Seine to the Eiffel Tower, and the terraces of the Trocadero outside are among the most popular viewpoints in Paris. People come to grasp the sweep of French architecture in a single visit, to admire the astonishing collection of casts, and to enjoy the building's setting and panorama. For travellers, students and anyone curious about how buildings shape a country, it offers an unusually clear and generous introduction to the subject. Admission covers the permanent galleries and rotating temporary exhibitions, and an audio guide helps draw out the stories behind the casts. Allowing a couple of hours lets visitors take in both the medieval and modern collections, and a stop on the terraces of the Trocadero outside, with their unrivalled view of the Eiffel Tower, is the natural way to round off a visit to this corner of the city.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: 1 Place du Trocadero, Paris, France

Website: https://www.citedelarchitecture.fr

Opening Date: 17/09/2007