page_title: Palais Bourbon
section_title: An aristocratic  country house in Paris (1726–1789)
hierarchical_section_title: Palais Bourbon / History / An aristocratic  country house in Paris (1726–1789)
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Porträt des Marquis de Lassay, Léon de Madaillan de Lesparre (1681-1750)
context_page_description: The Palais Bourbon serves as a meeting place of the French National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French government. It is located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine, across from the Place de la Concorde.
  The Palace was originally built beginning in 1722 for Louise Françoise de Bourbon, the duchesse de Bourbon, the legitimized daughter of Louis XIV and the Marquise de Montespan. Four successive architects, Lorenzo Giardini, Pierre Cailleteau, Jean Aubert and Jacques Gabriel completed the house in 1728. It was nationalized during the French Revolution, and from 1795 to 1799, during the Directory, it was the meeting place of the Council of Five Hundred, which chose the government leaders. Beginning in 1806, during Napoleon's First French Empire, Bernard poyet's Neoclassical facade was added to mirror that of Church of the Madeleine, facing it across the Seine and the Place de la Concorde.
  The Palace complex today has a floor area of 124,000m², with over 9500 rooms, in which 3000 people work.
context_section_description: The palace was built for Louise Françoise de Bourbon, Duchess of Bourbon (1673–1743), the Duchess of Bourbon, the legitimised daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. Begun in 1722 and finished in 1726, it was located in what was then a largely rural quarter at the edge of Paris, which was about to become a very fashionable residential neighborhood, the Faubourg Saint-Germain. Until that time, the area, called the Pré-au-Clercs, a wooded area popular for fighting duels. After the death of Louis XIV in 1715, following the example of the Regent, the aristocracy began to move their residences from Versailles back to Paris. Building space land was scarce in the traditional residential area of the nobility, the densely-populated Marais,  so the aristocracy of the Regency looked for land with space for gardens at the edges of the city, either near the Champs-Élysées on the right bank or on the left bank. 
  The Duchess of Bourbon had been known for frivolity at the Court in Versailles, but by the 1720s she had had seven children and was widowed.  The reputed lover of the Duchess, Armand de Madaillan de Lesparre, the Count of Lassy (Comte de Lassay) proposed the site of the palace to her;  he had purchased land next door along the Seine, and the two buildings were constructed at the same time. The parcel of land for the new palace was large, extending from the Seine to the rue de l'Université.
  The original plan called for a country residence surrounded by gardens, modeled after the Grand Trianon Palace at Versailles, designed by Jules Hardouin Mansart, the chief architect of Louis XIV. The Italian architect Lorenzo Giardini made the first plan, but he died in 1722, having made little but the first sketches. The project was taken over by Pierre Cailleteau, also known as Lassurance, who had been an assistant to Hardouin-Mansart. Cailleteau had worked on the palace of Versailles and Les Invalides, and knew the royal style very well, but he died in 1724. He was replaced by Jean Aubert, also a former assistant of Hardouin-Mansart. Aubert had built one of the grandest projects of the time, the stables of the royal residence at Chantilly. In the meanwhile, the construction of the neighbouring Hôtel de Lassay had begun, following a plan by another noted architect, Jacques Gabriel, the designer of the buildings around the Place de la Concorde. Both buildings were finished in 1728.
  Both the Palais Bourbon and the Hôtel de Lassay were in the Italian style, with roofs hidden by balustrades and invisible from street level.  The Palais Bourbon was in a U-shape. The main building was parallel to the Seine, with two wings enclosing a courtyard. The entrance to the courtyard and building was on the Rue de la Université. The entrance to the courtyard had an ornate archway, flanked by two pavilions.  The Hôtel de Lassay was rectangular, and more modest in size. The two buildings had identical facades facing the Seine. The facades featured alternating columns and windows, and decoration on the themes of the seasons, the elements, and, fitting for the daughter of the Sun King, about Apollo. The space between the buildings, and between the buildings and the Seine, was filled with gardens. In addition to the large reception rooms, the interior of the house had many small salons which could be arranged for a variety of purposes. It also had a novelty for buildings of the period; corridors, so one could pass through the building without walking through the rooms. None of the original apartments of the Duchess survive; they were demolished in the subsequent remodelings. 
  The Duchesse de Bourbon died in 1743, and De Lassay died in 1750. The Palace was purchased by Louis XV, who seems to have wished to include it in the plan of the new place Royale (now the Place de la Concorde)  which he was building on the other side of the river.  But in 1756 he sold it to grandson of the Duchess,  Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, who had been a military hero in the just-concluded Seven Years' War. The Prince decided to largely rebuild it, turning it from a country h
caption: The Marquis of Lassay
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