Page 103 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

The opulent gilt Grand Foyer of the Opéra National de Palais Garnier

TUILERIES

AND OPÉRA

Philip II, the first king of France, built a defensive
fortress on the outskirts of medieval Paris in
1190 which became known as the Louvre Castle.
This was soon surrounded by a dense urban
settlement. Francois I took up resi dence here in
1528 and destroyed the castle in favour of a larger
residence, inaugurating centuries of specially
commissioned gardens and buildings. The formal
gardens of the Tuileries, running alongside the
Louvre, were created by Marie de’ Medici in 1564
on the site of medieval tile factories, exclu sively
for royal use. Following the French Revolution of
1789, they were opened to the public. That year,
the revolutionary government erected a guillotine
in the grandiose place de la Concorde, at the
westernmost end of the garden, and it was there
that King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie-Antoinette,
were executed. In 1793 the palace was opened to
the public as a national museum.
Following the downfall of the monarchy, the
area remained affluent. Its broad leafy grands
boulevards and elegant squares were part of Baron
Haussmann’s extensive 19th-century moderniza-
tion of the city. The iconic Opéra National de
Palais Garnier is another landmark in the area.
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