Grand Palais in Paris. Grand Palais (Grand Palace) in Paris. What is the Grand Palace in Paris

In the center of Petit Palais there is a beautiful, cozy cafe “Le Jardin Du Petit Palais”, where it is pleasant to sit in silence away from the bustle big city. The elegant furnishings are conducive to relaxation - exotic plants, columns, and mosaic patterns are even present on the dishes. The cost of the daily dish with dessert is 15.90 euros.

The establishment is open daily 10:00-17:00, on Friday until 19:00. Monday is a day off.

The Grand Palais has its own restaurant, which offers tastings of honey collected directly on the palace grounds. It is open during Palais opening hours.

Opening hours and cost of visiting the Palaces

Although the Grand and Small Palaces stand side by side, facing each other, their opening hours are different.

Opening hours of the Grand Palace:

• Grand Palace receives guests daily: 9:00-22:00.
• Tuesday is a day off.

Opening hours of the Small Palace:

• The Small Palace is open: daily 10:00-18:00.
• Monday is a day off.

Tickets to the Big and Small Palace

• Temporary and permanent exhibitions at the Grand Palais will cost 6-12 euros.
• The permanent exhibitions of the Petit Palais are open to everyone free of charge, which is very pleasing, although unusual.
• Temporary ones cost 4-11 euros.

For reference: in Paris there is a wonderful tradition of declaring a “night of museums”. This means that any museum in the capital is open for free after 18:00 until midnight.

The queues are long, but is this really an obstacle to the opportunity to see the best masterpieces of world art?

Location and how to get to the Big and Small Palaces

Whether strolling through the expensive boutiques of the Champs-Élysées, visiting the legendary bars, admiring the sights or strolling along the Pont Alexandre III, it is difficult not to notice two magnificent buildings, reminiscent of boxes where the most valuable treasures are usually kept.

The Grand Palais in Paris and its permanent neighbor, the Petit Palais, took pride of place south of Chance-Elise, located between the main street of the capital and the Place de la Concorde, where the Luxor obelisk of Pharaoh Ramses II, donated to the city by the Egyptian ruler Mehmet Ali in 1831, proudly stands.

You can get to the Museum of Fine Arts and the Palace of Discovery by taking a taxi and travel comfortably from anywhere in the city.

If you prefer to make your own route, you will have to resort to the services of.

Big and Small Palace on the map

Contact Information

Grand Palais address: 3 Avenue du Eisenhower 75008 Paris, France
Contact phone: +33 1 44 13 17 17
Official website of the Grand Palais: www.grandpalais.fr
Petit Palais address: Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008 Paris, France
Contact phone: +33 1 53 43 40 00
Official website of the Petit Palais: www.petitpalais.paris.fr

Grand Palais in Paris (Video)

Big and Small Palace (Photo)

Photo gallery of the Grand Palais in Paris

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Grand and Petit Palais in Paris

It is almost impossible not to notice the Grand Palais des Beaux-Arts of Paris. A gigantic building with a fancy glass roof, copper quadrigas on the pediments and a high spire topped with a tricolor attracts the eye of any traveler, no matter where he is - on board a sightseeing ship sailing along the Seine, on the second floor tourist bus crossing the Pont Alexandre III, on observation platforms Arc de Triomphe or Eiffel Tower. The Grand Palace was built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900 and marks the end of the era of the great redevelopment of Paris - together with the Petit Palais, it completes the line stretching from the esplanade of the Invalides to the Champs-Elysees.

Story

The architects of the future pavilion faced a very difficult task: to create a majestic, beautiful and at the same time original building (it was necessary to take into account that the structure would probably be compared to the Eiffel Tower). As a result, the Parisian authorities preferred the project of the “three musketeers” - Henri Deglan, Albert Louvet, Albert Thomas. Charles Giraud, the creator of the Small Palace, was called upon to coordinate the external architectural appearance of the Grand Palace. The authors chose to move away from the modernism of Gustave Eiffel and carried out the construction in the Beaux Arts style, which involves a combination of various artistic and engineering trends - therefore, antique bronze quadrigas on the pediments, baroque wall decor and the advanced design of the glazed roof, with the steel weaving of the frame reminiscent of Eiffel Tower.

The production of the main vault of the Grand Palace took 6,000 tons of steel - more than the construction of the “First Lady of Paris”. Its glazing area is 13,500 sq. m - even today the roof of the palace is considered the largest glass roof in Europe.

Construction was difficult: the weak riverine soil could not support the weight of the grandiose building, the foundation had to be urgently strengthened - pretty soon the budget was exceeded, and due to insufficient payment for overtime work, the builders staged mass strikes. Nevertheless, by some miracle they met the deadline: “The building dedicated by the Republic to the glory of French art” (this inscription can still be read on the pediment) was opened exactly at the beginning of the World Exhibition of 1900.

Grand Palace today

Nowadays, the monumental structure is divided into two unequal parts: the smaller one is occupied by the “Museum of Discoveries and Inventions” ( favorite place excursions of French schoolchildren), and the largest - the Art Gallery. It does not have a permanent exhibition, but temporary exhibitions are invariably of the highest quality - they attract up to 2 million visitors to the Grand Palace every year.

Practical information

Address: Paris, Avenue Eisenhower, 3. Website

How to get there: the most convenient way is by metro (Champs-Elysees - Clemenceau or Franklin D. Roosvelt stations) or RER (Invalides station).

Opening hours and ticket prices: As a rule, the Grand Palace is open every day except Tuesday, from 10:00 to 22:00. Opening hours may vary on individual exhibition days. Ticket prices also vary depending on the events.

The Grand Palais (Grand Palace) on the Champs Elysees is a luxurious building in the Beaux Arts style, a major cultural and exhibition center.

It was built for the 1900 World Exhibition. At first they doubted whether it would be possible to eclipse the success of the Eiffel Tower at the last exhibition? We decided that this time the emphasis would be on art. The Grand Palace of Fine Arts (full name Grand Palais) became part of a large-scale redevelopment of the western part of Paris.

Construction was difficult. The soil could not support the weight of the building, 3,400 oak piles were needed, because of this the estimate was greatly exceeded. A gigantic amount of stone, steel, crushed stone, bricks, equipment and labor was required. One and a half thousand construction workers also created problems - strikes broke out.

The result was worth it. A majestic building appeared with a steel frame, a huge glass roof, big amount statues, friezes, mosaics. Bronze quadrigas by Georges Recipon crown both wings of the facade - allegorical statues representing Immortality, ahead of time, and Harmony, triumphant over discord. The inscription on the pediment proclaims that the Republic dedicates this building to the glory of French art.

From the very beginning, the Palace became a venue for exhibitions – dedicated to innovation and technology and, of course, artistic ones. It was here that Matisse and Gauguin gained recognition, and it was here that Cubism, led by the still unknown Picasso, first announced itself.

During World War II, the building was requisitioned as a military hospital with a thousand beds. Artists and sculptors who were not subject to mobilization decorated the chambers or made molds for prosthetics. During the occupation, the palace was used to host Nazi propaganda exhibitions, and during the liberation of Paris, it was used as the headquarters of the Resistance.

Today the Grand Palais is still an artistic center. Exhibitions, fashion parades (the Chanel fashion house holds its shows here), car shows, horse shows, book fairs, live concerts, the world fencing championship - it is difficult to list all the events taking place under the glass roof of the Grand Palais des Beaux-Arts.

The majestic Grand Palace of Fine Arts (Le Grand Palais) adorned Winston Churchill Avenue in the very late XIX V. Construction of a large exhibition center in the Beaux-Art style began in 1897 and was completed in the spring of 1900 for the opening of the World's Fair.

Thoughts about beauty and their implementation

The start of construction of the Grand Palais was preceded by a competition of architectural designs, which did not determine a single winner. By decision of the competition commission, the ideas of the architects Henri Deglan, Albert Louvet, Albert Thomas were recognized as the most interesting, and the overall coordination of the work was entrusted to Charles Giraud.

The building of the Grand Palace with a facade 240 m long was erected on part of the territory that was previously occupied by the Palace of Industry, which did not meet the requirements of the time. It represents the culmination of the development of the eclectic Beaux-Arts style. Elements of classicism architecture are harmoniously combined with the designs of the Art Nouveau era. The Grand Palais of Paris belongs to those examples of architecture at the turn of the century when the engineer acquired equal rights with the architect in shaping the aesthetic appearance of the building.

The impressive building with an area of ​​77 thousand m2 is located along the “republican axis” running from east to west. The large nave of the palace and the transverse paddock were designed by A. Deglan. He is also the author of the colonnades along the facades, the model for which was the work of V. Laloux during the reconstruction of the Louvre.

Designed by A. Louvet central part The building is covered by a magnificent dome. The weight of its metal structure and glass panels is 9 thousand tons, and highest point The vault is located at an altitude of 45 m. The western wing or Antin Palace (Palais d’Antin) was built by the architect A. Thoma. The use of a huge amount of glass in the construction of the Grand Palace allows us to call it the heir to the aesthetics of D. Paxton, who built the Crystal Palace in London in 1851.

Art of decor

Monumental copper sculptural compositions Georges Rechipon are symmetrically installed on the sides of the palace portal at a height of about 40 m. Closer to the Champs Elysees is sculptural group“Immortality, conquering Time”, and on the side of the Seine, the composition “Harmony triumphing over Discordia” was installed first. The façade of the palace is also decorated with numerous bronze statues by sculptors Alexandre Falguier and Victor Peter.

Many halls of the Grand Palace are decorated with mosaic designs. The floor of the Elliptical Hall is paved with sandstone tiles in brown, beige and greenish colors. Its pattern repeats the cardboards proposed for interior decoration by the artist Louis Guist.


Ten mosaic panels are located at a high height under the peristyle of A. Deglan. Their total area is 273 m2, and the total length of the work of art is 74 m. The subject of the mosaic paintings by Auguste and Rene Martin, created according to sketches by Louis Fournier, was the history of great civilizations. Each episode is dedicated to the art of a different region: ancient Greece, Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, French Middle Ages, Italian Renaissance, India, Southeast Asia, Africa, China, Japan and the Americas.

Unity in diversity

Upon completion of construction, the Grand Palais, as expected, became one of the leading cultural and exhibition centers in Paris. But if its western wing, the Antin Palace, has been permanently occupied by the exhibition of the Museum of Discoveries and Inventions since 1937, then East End The palace was used in a very varied way.

Along with the organization of permanent temporary art exhibitions, in a number of halls there were, over the years, architectural workshops, a customs office, a police station, a Center for Germanic and Slavic Studies, a regional center for cultural affairs, a Photographic Heritage Mission, and the National Gallery.


The creation of a unified center for culture and art in 2007 made it possible to introduce greater rationality in the use of the palace. Now it houses National Gallery du Grand Palais, Palace of Discovery, rehearsal rooms of the Comedie Française theater. The upcoming large-scale renovation of the Grand Palais between 2020 and 2023 will transform the building with more than a century of history and prepare it to host fencing and taekwondo competitions during the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The Grand Palace in Paris is incredibly popular - a majestic architectural structure has stood on this site since 1892. Most often, the building is used as an exhibition hall, telling visitors about the rich culture of France.

Paris Grand and Petit Palaces what's in them

The Grand Palace in Paris is not only cultural monument, capable of telling about the architecture of those difficult times. Now its premises are occupied by two most interesting museums, telling about the capital and the country in all its colors.

On one side of the building there is the Museum of Inventions and Innovative Findings, and on the other there is an art gallery. Both there and there constantly host original exhibitions on various topics.

The south of the room will appeal to our compatriots: the Russian-language department of the Sorbonne with its own history of formation is located there. The university also happily welcomes tourists, so the Grand Palais is always full of people.

What is the Grand Palace in Paris

The Grand Palais in Paris owes its appearance to the World Exhibition held in 1990, dedicated to the great meeting of the new twentieth century, full of possible discoveries and innovative solutions.

Expert opinion

Knyazeva Victoria

Guide to Paris and France

A huge number of architects fought for the right to build it, but only three, recognized as the best of the best, won. The future building was divided into zones, entrusting each of the architects with a part. Thanks to this decision, the project turned out to be harmonious, but at the same time original and interesting.

Since then, practically nothing has changed - the Grand Palais is considered the largest exhibition hall in the world.

Exhibitions at the Grand Palais in Paris

Here you can see a huge number interesting presentations, related to history, science and the arts, as well as fashion, cars and even animals. It is the Grand Palais in Paris that hosts Chanel's annual fashion show.

Picasso Museum

Grand Palace opening hours

To visit the palaces of Paris at the right time, you need to know when they are open. No tourist wants to stand in front of a closed door or get caught in rush hour, especially if his time is limited.

You can visit the attraction from Wednesday to Friday, between 9 am and 10 pm. But please note: The Grand and Petit Palais in Paris operate only in local time.

Sometimes this schedule changes. This usually happens during special exhibitions. In this case, the opening hours should be checked individually with the organizer.

Grand Palais in Paris official website

To find out how the palaces of Paris work and understand what exhibitions are being held there in the near future, just visit the official website of the building (www.grandpalais.fr).

It talks about how to find a building without traveling all over Paris, what is planned in the near future and how much it costs to visit a particular exhibition.

Petit Palais Museum of Paris

The Grand and Petit Palais in Paris were built almost simultaneously, so the small brother of the main building also has its own rich history. It’s worth a visit just for the beautiful design - the façade of the building looks original and unusual.

Catacombs of Paris

Like other buildings, the Petit Palais is also rich in interesting exhibitions. The entire history of art can be found here.

Petit Palais in Paris exposition

Now there are no permanent exhibitions there, like in the big one, but in the petit palais there is still something to see. It is rich in fashion and paintings painted by great painters at different times.