Palais Bourbon

Palais Bourbon stands in Paris’s seventh arrondissement, on the Left Bank of the Seine, opposite Place de la Concorde. It houses the National Assembly, France’s lower parliamentary chamber. The neoclassical frontage faces the river and echoes the Church of the Madeleine across the water. The Hôtel de Lassay occupies its western side.

Construction began in 1722 as a country residence for Louise Françoise de Bourbon, Duchess of Bourbon. She was the legitimised daughter of Louis XIV. Several architects, including Lorenzo Giardini and Jacques Gabriel, completed the work in 1728. The original design followed the Grand Trianon at Versailles. An Italian-style U-shaped plan placed the main building parallel to the Seine, with wings enclosing a courtyard. Those two wings framed gardens around the residence. During the French Revolution, nationalisation turned the building into a meeting place for the Council of Five Hundred. That political role required a hemicycle chamber.

Under Napoleon’s French Empire, Bernard Poyet added a neoclassical façade in 1806, reshaping the building’s public presence. The frontage aligned with the Church of the Madeleine. Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, had earlier bought the neighbouring Hôtel de Lassay, linking the two buildings. The hemicycle retained classical Roman design elements despite its poor acoustics.