Palais Bourbon

The Palais Bourbon stands on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, facing the Place de la Concorde across the river, begun in 1722 as a private residence for the Duchesse de Bourbon, a legitimized daughter of King Louis XIV. The palace passed through several noble owners before being confiscated during the French Revolution, and it has served as the meeting place of France's lower legislative chamber, now the National Assembly, since the revolutionary period. Its imposing Neoclassical colonnaded facade facing the river was added early in the nineteenth century under Napoleon, designed to visually answer the Neoclassical facade of the Madeleine church across the Seine on the opposite bank. The building's interior retains grand reception rooms from its original residential construction alongside the purpose-built debating chamber added for its legislative function.