The French Royal Wardrobe: The Hotel de la Marine Restored

The Hotel de la Marine, an exemplary monument on Paris’s Place de la Concorde, is a superb architectural achievement constructed in the eighteenth century by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the official architect of King Louis XV. The institution it housed was charged with choosing, purchasing, and maintaining all of the king’s furniture-from beds to the simplest chair-and the crown’s treasures were stored here until 1789, after which it became the site of the Ministry of the Navy for more than two hundred years.

An extensive four-year restoration was completed in 2021; the building reopened to the public, and features a museum, conserved apartments that highlight the tastes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, an exhibition hall, a bookshop, and three restaurants. Previously unpublished photography captures the splendor and majesty of the monument.