Every time we visit Paris, we find ourselves re-visiting favorite places and meals—but we also always seem to find something new and different. This year’s find was the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, a most unusual museum.
The City of Architecture and Heritage owes its existence to Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, the architect of Notre Dame’s biggest restoration and many other monumental works. Most of his life’s work was in restoration or modeling from the past, and it wouldn’t be entirely accurate, therefore, to call him a 19th-century architect. Gothic Revivalist would suit better.
The largest portion of the Cité is given over to casts casts of monumental French architecture from the 12th to 18th centuries, taken from castles, cathedrals and more, reflecting his interest in preserving and glorifying historical styles. That’s slightly ironic, because his detractors say that he modified too much and restored too little. Another year to debate that one!
The models and casts were intended to save copies of the best, and to make them available to architects and others who might learn from them. Viollet-le-Duc opened the museum in 1879 as the Museum of French Monuments. Although he died shortly after, his concern over the training of architects and artisans to carry out monumental work led to the addition of a school, now known as the École de Chaillot, for that training.
The whole complex—the Gallery of Casts, a Gallery of Murals and Glass and the Modern and Contemporary Gallery—is housed in the Palais de Chaillot, facing the Eiffel Tower across the Seine. It is perhaps ironic that Chaillot, built for the 1937 International Exposition, is in thoroughly modern style, with only the faintest references to classicism.
The Modern and Contemporary Gallery is on the upper floor of the Cité’s space, covers the years since 1850, and especially since the First World War. and features both models of exemplary projects, such as Marcel Breuer’s unusual ski resort and village in Haute-Savoie (just below)
There are also models of less spectacular buildings that are exemplars of their time and style, with descriptions that show how they developed in response to the needs and ideals of their times, such as these three Paris apartment buildings of different eras.
Public buildings from across France are picked out and discussed in context: why new roles developed for transportation and cultural hubs, how new ideas in housing became necessary in different periods and more. In essence, it provides a way of looking at society and history through the lens of its buildings.
But the real star of the show, frankly, is on the lowest level of the museum, where the lens is that of the centuries during which rulers, whether secular or religious (and sometimes they were the same) expressed their power and wealth, and for the way of life they intended their subjects to follow.
Some are models of whole projects, such as the mini-Arcs de Triomphe above, or the scale models of churches, including cutaways and projections. These are especially helpful in understanding where and how the other architectural elements work.
And there are plenty of elements available for study. The largest number of them were made as casts of existing facades and buildings, carefully cleaned up in many cases to ‘how they would have looked when new,’ and in other cases showing considerable wear. And there are even a few ancient bits, rescued from the wreckage of destroyed buildings.
It’s simply an amazing feeling to walk through the gallery, to confront both small details and huge assemblies; to compare the work of different periods and just to take in the scale on which these monuments were constructed.
The work of collection and casting that began with Viollet-le-Duc has continued on, but has long since outstripped its original spaces. In 2004, his Museum of French Monuments was joined with other elements to form the Cité. Also at the Chaillot are the home of the French Institute of Architects and a vast library of architecture.
The Cité has been celebrating the 10th anniversary of the major renovations that gave the spaces their present layout, with a variety of exhibitions. But even without special shows, it’s an extraordinary place to visit—and one that even most Parisians are barely aware of.
The Museum is open daily except Tuesday from 11 am to 7 pm. It’s near the Line 6 Metro’s Trocadero stop, and near several bus stops. Admission is €8 for the permanent collection, or €12 with special exhibitions included. It’s also on the Paris Museum Pass.
A word or two more about Viollet-le-Duc’s career. Aside from his supervision of work at Notre Dame, his noted projects include Mont-Saint-Michel, the medieval village of Carcassonne, the Chateau de Vincennes, and, as assistant, Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. But the one that intrigues me, and of which I can find little information, is a railroad car commissioned for Napoleon III, to be appointed in 14th-century Gothic style! No amount of searching has made me certain, but this image of a car used by Pope Pius IX indicates that it was acquired from Louis Napoleon before 1878.
