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Luxembourg Palace at sunset

The Palais du Luxembourg in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, north of the Luxembourg Garden, is where the French Senate meets.

The formal Luxembourg Garden (Jardin du Luxembourg) presents a 25-hectare green parterre of gravel and lawn populated with statues and provided with large basins of water where children sail model boats. In the southwest corner, there is an orchard of apple and pear trees and the théâtre des marionettes (puppet theatre).

The palace was built for Marie de Médicis, mother of king Louis XIII of France, just near the site of an old hôtel particulier owned by François, duc de Luxembourg, hence its name (now called Petit Luxembourg, home of the president of French Senate). Marie de Médicis bought the structure and its fairly extensive domain in 1612 and commissioned the new building, which she referred to as her Palais Médecis,^[1] in 1615. Her architect was Salomon de Brosse.^[2] Its construction and furnishing formed her major artistic project, though nothing remains today of the interiors as they were created for her, save some architectural fragments reassembled in the Salle du Livre d'Or.^[3] The suites of paintings she commissioned, in the subjects of which she expressed her requirements through her agents and advisors, are scattered among museums. Most famously, a series of twenty-four triumphant canvases were commissioned from Peter Paul Rubens.^[4] A series of paintings executed for her Cabinet Doré ("gilded study") was identified by Anthony Blunt in 1967.^[5]

She installed her household in 1625, while work on interiors continued. The apartments to one side were reserved for the Queen and the matching suite on the other for Louis XIII (floor plan). Construction was finished in 1631; the Queen Mother was forced from court the same year, following the "Day of the Dupes". Louis commissioned further decorations for the Palace from Nicolas Poussin and Philippe de Champaigne.

Floor plan shows the large enclosed cour d'honneur

In 1642, Marie bequeathed the Luxembourg to her second son, Gaston d'Orléans, the king's younger brother. It passed to his widow and to his daughter, Anne, Duchess of Montpensier, who made it her residence. Her daughter, the duchesse de Guise, inherited it in 1660 and gave it to Louis XIV in 1694. The palace was not used again until it was owned by Louis XVI who gave it in 1778 to his brother, the Comte de Provence. During the French Revolution, it was briefly a prison, then the center of the French Directory and later the first residence of Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul of France. It has continued its senatorial role, with brief interruptions, ever since.

In the nineteenth century the palace was extensively remodeled, with a new garden façade by Alphonse de Gisors (1836-1841), and a cycle of paintings (1845-1847) by Eugène Delacroix that was added to the library.

In fine weather Parisians fill the Jardin du Luxembourg

During the German occupation of Paris (1940-1944), Hermann Göring took over the Palais as the headquarters of the Luftwaffe in France, taking for himself a sumptuous suite of rooms to accommodate his visits to the French capital. His subordinate, Luftwaffe Field Marshal Hugo Sperrle, also took an apartment and spent most of the war enjoying the luxurious surroundings. "The Field Marshal's craving for luxury and public display ran a close second to that of his superior, Goering; he was also his match in corpulence," wrote armaments minister Albert Speer after a visit to Sperrle in Paris.

The Palais was a designated "strong point" for German forces defending the city in August 1944, but thanks to the decision of commanding Gen. Dietrich von Choltitz to surrender the city rather than fight, the Palais was only minimally damaged.

The building was later used for the peace conference of 1946.

• Media related to Luxembourg Palace from the Wikimedia Commons.

Coordinates: 48°50′54″N, 2°20′14″E