Palace · France · Restored

Palais-Royal

The Palais-Royal is a monumental palace complex on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris that surrounds a formal garden and a ring of covered shopping arcades. Built for Cardinal Richelieu and later modified by the Dukes of Orléans, by the late 18th century it combined princely apartments, public galleries, theatres and the Jardin du Palais-Royal. Today it houses French state institutions while the garden and arcades remain a public promenading space.

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Photograph via Wikimedia Commons

First raised

1628

Its prime

1784

Today

Restored

As it stood in 1784

What Palais-Royal looked like in its prime.

The south façade is a long late-classical stone front: a central three‑bay block with a rounded pediment, low cupola and twin arched passages, flanked by symmetrical wings each capped with steep gray slate mansard roofs and triangular sculpted pediments. Ground floor arches form a continuous colonnade and loggia; the upper storeys show regular sash windows with stone surrounds. The complex reads as a continuous six‑storey run of pale ashlar and slate, opening inward onto a rectangular formal garden ringed by covered arcades.

Step inside

8 places to explore in 1784.

The record describes 8 distinct spots at Palais-Royal, including 4 interiors: galerie de montpensier arcade (ground-floor shopping colonnade), galerie des hommes illustres (richelieu's gallery), grand appartement enfilade (princely state rooms) and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more photos, more angles and more of the immersive experience.

Place du Palais-Royal — south approachCentral arched passages into the Cour d'HonneurCour d'Honneur (entrance courtyard)Jardin du Palais-Royal (central garden)Galerie de Montpensier arcade (ground-floor shopping colonnade)Galerie des Hommes Illustres (Richelieu's gallery)Grand Appartement enfilade (princely state rooms)Théâtre des Beaujolais / Théâtre Montansier (northwest garden theatre)

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Whose seat

Families who held Palais-Royal.

The families tied to Palais-Royal across its history, follow a name to its page.

Orléans
Given by Louis XIV to his brother Philippe in 1692; Paris seat of the Orléans branch of the royal house, whose duke rebuilt the arcades, until 1848.

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