Palais du Luxembourg

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The palace was built for Marie de Médicis, mother of king Louis XIII of France and of Gaston, duc d’Orléans, just near the site of an old hôtel particulier owned by François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Piney-Luxembourg, hence its name. Marie de Médicis desired to make a building similar to her native Florence’s Palazzo Pitti,. 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 Médicis,^[6] in 1615. 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.^[7] The suites of paintings she commissioned, in the subjects of which she expressed her requirements through her agents and advisors, are scattered among museums.

Marie de Médicis 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 her son, Louis XIII (floor plan). Construction was finished in 1631; the Queen Mother was forced from court shortly after, following the “Day of the Dupes” in November 1631. Louis XIII commissioned further decorations for the Palace from Nicolas Poussin and Philippe de Champaigne.

In 1642, Marie bequeathed the Luxembourg to her second and favourite son, Gaston d’Orléans, who called it the Palais d’Orléans, but by popular will it was still known by its original name.