Places, museums, monuments : 133
-
Place, museum or monumentLouvre Museum Second Empire
It was Napoleon III who in the end finished the Louvre, thus completing the “Great Design” dreamt of by French kings over the centuries.Napoleon I had already started the construction during the First Empire, building in the Tuileries and hoping to link the edifice to the Louvre palace, but he left it unfinished. As early […]
-
Place, museum or monumentNapoleonmuseum Arenenberg
Arenenberg Palace in the canton of Thurgovie was purchased in 1817 by the (at that time) exiled Queen Hortense. She spent every summer there from 1823 until the year of her death in 1837. Prince Louis-Napoleon spent his youth in Arenenberg, dividing his time between this charming residence and his studies in Augsburg. Forced to […]
-
Place, museum or monumentLouvre Museum, First Empire
The Louvre can never be a comfortable residence. I regard it as a kind of ceremonial palace in which we must store all our riches in the field of art and science, such as statues, bronze sculptures, paintings, books, archives, medals… Napoleon I. In 1803, ten years after it was created, the Louvre was rebaptized the […]
-
Place, museum or monumentArc de Triomphe de l’Etoile – Paris
In 1806, Napoleon ordered the construction of a triumphal arch to glorify the Grand Army, and the first stone was laid on 6 August of the same year. Over 160 feet high, it outshone by far all of its predecessors. Designed after the Arch of Titus in Rome, it was meant to provide a majestic […]
-
Place, museum or monumentElba
Elba is situated in the Tyrrhenian sea opposite Piombino from which it is separated by a canal a mere 10 miles long. This small island 14 miles long and 6 miles wide, is where Napoleon chose to retire when he abdicated for the first time. The Fontainebleau treaty granted him ownership and sovereignty of the […]
-
Place, museum or monumentSchoenbrunn Palace
Under the French occupation, in 1805 and 1809, Schoenbrunn Palace was Napoleon's headquarters. It was there he signed the treaty that was named after the palace on October 14, 1809. And this occupation was to last, since Napoleon allied himself with the Habsburg dynasty by marrying the Archduchess Marie-Louise, daughter of Emperor Francis I. […]
-
Place, museum or monumentWaterloo
The battle of Waterloo took place during the Belgian campaign on June 18, 1815. The French were totally defeated by both the Anglo-Dutch coalition led by Wellington and the Prussian army led by Blücher. The defeat led to the Fall of the First Empire. The historic sites linked to this battle are spread out over […]
-
Place, museum or monumentBaron Gérard Museum
The Baron Gérard Museum has been located since 1900 in the oldest wing of the bishops' residence of Bayeux. It owes its name to the large legacy donated in 1898 by Henri-Alexandre Gérard (1818-1903), great art lover, deputé for the arrondissement and nephew of the painter François Gérard. The museum possesses an interesting collection of Neoclassical […]
-
Place, museum or monumentCarnavalet Museum
In 1866, after his town planning projects had removed a section of the heart of Paris, Baron Haussmann decided to create a museum dedicated to the history of the capital. It was thus at his instigation that the city of Paris purchased the Carnavalet Hotel, a splendid building constructed in 1548 for Jacques de Ligneris, […]
-
Place, museum or monumentMusée national de la Voiture et du Tourisme
Founded in 1927, on the initiative of the Touring Club de France, the French National Car and Tourism museum takes as its theme the history of road transport from its origins in horse-drawn vehicles to the beginnings of the motor car. Examples of two types of horse-drawn vehicle are on display, namely four-wheelers and two-wheelers. […]