National Archives Museum
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September 11, 2020
In March 1700, Francois de Rohan-Soubise and his wife Anne de Rohan-Chabot bought the Hotel de Guise and in 1705 entrusted the task of updating it to the young architect Pierre-Alexis Delamere, who decided to change the orientation of the building by placing a new facade in classical style opposite the old south wing. The facade of the new residence consists of a risalite with double superimposed columns forming three spans of 3.50 m on two levels, topped with a triangular pediment. The cartouche of this pediment with the coat of arms of the de Rohan-Soubise family was destroyed during the Revolution. The slopes of the pediment are decorated with two reclining statues, allegories of Glory and Splendor, and each of its corners represents sculptures by Robert Le Lorrain.
On the site of the riding arena of the Hotel de Guise, he built a majestic courtyard 62 meters long, with rounded porticos forming a peristyle of 56 columns, opened by a crescent to the Rue Franck-Bourgeois. The work was completed in 1709.
In 1712, the residence was inherited by Francois de Soubise's eldest son, Hercules de Rohan-Rohan, Prince de Soubise, who commissioned architect Germain Boffran to renovate the apartments for his second wife, the young Princess Marie-Sophie de Courcillon. These apartments are one of the best examples of decorative art, a collective masterpiece thanks to the talent of the best artists, sculptors and ornamentalists of that time - Francois Boucher, Charles Natour, John the Baptist II Lemoine, Jacques Verbeckt, who were gathered at his construction site by Boffrand.
During the revolution, the Soubise hotel was leased and finally sold in favor of the creditors of the de Soubise family.
By the decree of the Emperor dated March 6, 1808, it was acquired by the state and officially transferred to the Archive of the Empire, for the needs of which it was rebuilt.
In 1867, the National Archival Museum was established here.
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