Tel. 03 26 47 81 79
Open: Tue- Sun
Closed: Jan 1, May 1, Nov 1 & 11, Dec 25
The Palais du Tau was one of the residences of the
archbishops of Reims. It owes its name to its plan which, in the Middle
Ages, was in the shape of the letter T (Tau in Greek). Building
adjoining Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral, it was also a royal residence
during the coronations of the kings of France in Reims.
Occupied
since the 5th century on this site, the former residence of the bishops
and archbishops of Reims was enlarged and rebuilt over the centuries,
with major alterations at the end of the 15th century and in the years
1680-1690. The palace was transformed into a court, then a stock
exchange during the French Revolution.
Severely damaged during a
fire at the start of the First World War, on September 19, 1914,
following bombardments on the cathedral, the Palais du Tau was restored
from the 1950s and since 1972 has housed the museum of the cathedral of
Reims and the coronation of the kings of France.
At the current location of the cathedral, Bishop Nicaise had a
church dedicated to Notre-Dame built at the beginning of the 5th
century and moved into an adjoining Gallo-Roman villa, the remains
of which were found during excavations in the lower hall of the
current palace. This church is the place of the baptism of Clovis by
the bishop of Reims Remi around 500 and becomes from 816 to 1825 the
place of the coronation of most of the kings of France. The Tau
Palace was the residence of kings for their coronation, and the Tau
room hosted the royal banquet at the end of the ceremony.
The
residence of the bishops of Reims was enlarged over the centuries,
notably by Ebbon during the ninth century.
The name Tau is
due to the T-shape of the main hall of the archbishops' residence.
This name is mentioned in 1138 in a diploma of Louis VII. It then
had the appearance of a fortified house, the current wall separating
the two courtyards has replaced a thick crenellated wall. The
building was then to be surrounded by defensive towers. Today only
the Tour d'Éon is attested by the various iconographies and texts.
In 1210, following a fire affecting the cathedral, the building
was probably damaged significantly6. A palatine chapel, on two
levels, in the Gothic style was built by Jean d'Orbais during the
period 1215-1235.
Guillaume Briçonnet had the palace
remodeled in the flamboyant Gothic style at the end of the 15th
century. Appointed the king's lieutenant general for Languedoc, he
had to leave the seat of Reims for that of Narbonne, his successor
Robert de Lénoncourt completed the work according to the established
plans. Like the neighboring cathedral, the Tau room was decorated
with a fleur-de-lysé ridge. There was then in the center of the
second courtyard an imposing bronze statue of a deer, installed in
the 11th century by Archbishop Gervais. During the coronation of
kings, this statue was moved to the forecourt of the cathedral, once
filled with wine it served as a fountain. This deer quickly became
the symbol of officialdom and now appears on its seal.
The
palace was further enlarged by the Cardinal of Lorraine then by
Guillaume Gifford who each built a new pavilion on the garden side.
The palace kept this style for nearly two centuries, until the
work of Robert de Cotte between 1688 and 1693, at the request of
Archbishop Charles-Maurice Le Tellier. The palace then acquires its
classical appearance, the crossing of the great hall of Tau
disappears and the surface of the monument is considerably enlarged.
The Palais du Tau then lost its defensive aspect while the Tour
d'Eon had been destroyed in 1648 by Léonore d'Estampes. Now the
royal house consists of 6 rooms overlooking the garden, the
archbishop meanwhile has his apartments in the south wing.
With the emigration to Germany of Archbishop Alexandre de
Talleyrand-Périgord in 1790, the monument was confiscated and became
national property. The palace was then completely transformed and
now houses a court, while the Tau room houses the stock exchange.
The chapel awaiting destruction was converted into a prison and the
garden into a courtyard for the prisoners. The return of the
archbishop took place during the Restoration, in 1823. For the
coronation of Charles X in 1825, the palace was restored in a
neo-Gothic style by the architect François Mazois. The palace
already has a cultural function with the installation of the Academy
of Reims which sat there from 1841 to 1906, moreover a lapidary
museum was temporarily opened in the lower chapel at the end of the
19th century. The monument also hosts several congresses as well as
retrospective exhibitions such as those of 1876 and 1896 where local
collectors and the funds of the municipal museum are exhibited. The
South wing along the first courtyard was rebuilt according to the
plans of Viollet-le-Duc, the old outbuildings then gave way to the
stables on the ground floor and the superb library of Cardinal
Gousset on the first floor (near of 20,000 books).
Following
the defeat of 1871 in the Franco-Prussian War, Kaiser Guillaume I
stayed at the Palais du Tau. Caricatures earned him the nickname
"king chi-lit", the latter who then lived in the former royal
apartments would have soiled the bed where Charles X had slept
during his coronation.
The separation of Church and State in
1905 put an end to the occupation of the palace by the archbishops
of Reims: on December 17, 1906, the archbishop of Reims Louis-Joseph
Luçon was forced to leave the palace. The Palais du Tau has been
classified as a historical monument since December 20, 1907.
From 1907, the palace was intended to house the ethnographic museum
of Champagne on the upper floors, a museum on the coronation in the
royal apartments that had remained intact since the coronation of
Charles X, as well as an archeology museum. At the instigation of
Dr. Octave Guelliot, the first collections were installed there,
work to fit out a mosaic showroom began in the current
administrative court, but the outbreak of war immediately halted the
work. On September 19, 1914, the adjoining cathedral was bombed,
causing a fire that spread to the palace. The palace was badly
damaged, the gallery of painted kings in the Tau room went up in
smoke, all of the museum's collections were destroyed. The four
years of war did not spare the monument, entire walls collapsed, at
the end of the war little more than the facades and the chapel
remained.
From 1919, the cathedral was rebuilt and restored
by Henri Deneux, who used the Palais du Tau as a workshop. It was
not until 1950 that the reconstruction of the palace was started, in
order to accommodate a museum which opened in 1972.
In 1991,
the cathedral and the palace of Tau were listed as World Heritage by
UNESCO.
Since 1972, the Palais du Tau has been a national monument managed by
the Center des monuments nationaux14. The Palais du Tau houses the
Museum of the Work, with important sculpted elements from Notre-Dame
Cathedral, deposited after the fire of 1914 and during successive
restorations of the 20th century.
The tapestries that were
exhibited at the cathedral can be seen in different rooms of the palace.
The museum exhibits the treasure of the cathedral, and dedicates rooms
to the evocation of the coronations of the kings of France.
It is
also the place for temporary exhibitions, events and shows.
The lower chapel dates from the beginning of the 13th century. A 14th century tympanum depicting a Virgin and Child is located above the passage leading to the chapel. Since 1919, the lapidary deposit of elements of the cathedral, visible through a glass door closing the access, has been constituted in this part of the palace. In particular, the fragments of the rood screen of the 15th century cathedral, destroyed in 1744, are present there.
The lower room, located below the Tau room, dates from the 15th
century, it still retains today the western part of the crossing which
gave the monument its T-shape and therefore its name of tau. It has
ribbed vaults, the keystones bearing the arms of Guillaume Briçonnet.
The excavations carried out in 1996 in the rooms brought to light the
remains of an ancient Gallo-Roman domus and the arcades embedded in the
east wall are estimated to date from the 9th century. The large bay
windows were pierced in 1845.
Part of the palace hosted the king
and the festivities during his coronation. The Palais du Tau reserves
two rooms for the ceremony and the objects of the coronation. The
treasure, part of which consists of objects used during the coronation,
is gathered in two small rooms.
This room originally had a T-shape, hence its name. This vast room, now rectangular since the work of Robert de Cotte in the 17th century, was previously remodeled at the end of the 15th century for Archbishop Guillaume Briçonnet. Its coat of arms, mixed with those of the chapter of Reims, are carved on the fireplace. In the center the coat of arms of the King of France had been replaced in 1825 by the figure of Charles X (two interlaced Cs), they were restored by the post-war restorations. The hall's wooden frame is shaped like an inverted ship's hull and features nine horizontal beams. The room was badly damaged during the fire of 1914 which destroyed the vault as well as the gallery of the painted king, the fireplace was spared by the bombardments. It is now restored to its presumed 15th century state. Two large wall hangings illustrating the history of Fort Roy Clovis, dating from the 15th century, are on display. This room is also called the Feast Room because the banquet following the royal coronation took place there.
The treasure is exhibited in two rooms located between the Tau room
and the upper chapel. The first presents the treasure of the Ancien
Régime and the second exhibits the collections dating from the
Restoration. The treasury of the Ancien Régime is essentially made up of
objects from the treasury of the cathedral and which were not destroyed
during the Revolution, the elements of the treasury of the Restoration
were essentially made for the coronation of Charles X:
the
reliquary of the Holy Ampulla (the Holy Ampulla used during the
coronation of Charles X is kept inside, a copy is presented just in
front);
the coronation chalice, a goldsmith's piece which was part of
the regalia of the kingdom of France;
Charlemagne's talisman, a jewel
of the ninth century. This gift from Caliph Haroun ar-Rachid to
Charlemagne was found during the exhumation of the emperor's body in
1166. Kept since in Aix-la-Chapelle, the talisman was offered to
Josephine by the bishop of the city Berdolet in 1804. It was Empress
Eugénie who offered it to Cardinal Luçon in 1919. This jewel in gold,
emeralds, garnets, pearls and sapphires contains a thorn from the True
Cross;
the reliquary of the Resurrection dating from the second half
of the 15th century.
the nave of Saint Ursula. This ceremonial nave,
made by a goldsmith from Tours at the end of the 15th century (Raymond
Guyonnet or Pierre Rousseau), was given to Anne of Brittany in 1500. In
1505, the queen had statuettes of Saint Ursula and her companions on the
bridge of the nave. The nave reaches Henry III who offers it to the
cathedral in 1575. The coat of arms of Henry III, and a Latin
inscription made for his gift are visible on the base of the object.
This palatine chapel is accessible from the Tau room. The entrance is
surmounted by a tympanum decorated with an Adoration of the Magi. A
Champagne passage is reserved in the interior foothills. It currently
houses the six candlesticks and the cross of the goldsmith Henri Auguste
which were made on the occasion of the marriage of Napoleon and
Marie-Louise.
The chapel is built on two levels. It has been
classified as a historical monument since July 12, 1886.
This room is dedicated to the coronation in 1825 of Charles X, the
last crowned French sovereign. Charles X's coronation mantle is a 5.70 m
long piece of purple silk velvet.
The current Charles X room
corresponds to the pavilion which was built in brick and stone by the
Cardinal of Lorraine in the 17th century and which was destroyed by the
bombardments of the Great War.
This piece features a copy of Louis XV's crown, the original being in
the Louvre Museum. On the walls are hung the portrait of Mgr Le Tellier,
oil on canvas by Pierre Mignard, and one of the versions of the painting
by Joseph Siffrein Duplessis representing Louis XVI in coronation
costume.
Since November 2017, a period copy of a portrait of the
Bottlenose Dolphin by Henri Testelin has been presented, the original of
which is presented at the Palace of Versailles.
This room contains statues and various elements of the cathedral. The
Goliath, sculpted with his coat of mail and his helmet, is dated to the
third quarter of the 13th century. From the top of these 5.4 m it is the
largest statue of the cathedral, it weighs nearly 6 tons. It was located
on the west facade of the cathedral, above the rose window. In this room
are also exhibited other monumental statues removed from the cathedral:
The Synagogue and The Church (south arm of the transept), Adam and Eve
(north arm of the transept), Saint Paul and Saint Jacques (south tower),
the Risen Christ and Saint Thomas (north tower). These last two statues
are altered following the fire of September 19, 1914 which severely
damaged this part of the cathedral. The room contains fragments of two
statues also from the north tower: the head of the pilgrim Christ and
the head of Saint John, also dated from the same period. Traces of
polychromy are still visible on this last face.:
Room of small
sculptures
A room which presents many sculpted heads fallen during
the First World War, the monumental sculptures of Abraham, and some
models. The model of the ideal cathedral of Viollet-le-Duc gives an idea
of what the cathedral would have looked like if it had been finished.
Since November 2017, a model of Reims Cathedral has also been presented.
A short film presents the construction of the cathedral.
Four wall embroideries, dated to the 17th century, depicting imagined scenes from the biblical book Song of Songs adorn this room. These wool and silk embroideries come from the castle of Hauteville (Aisne) and were donated in 1807 to the cathedral.
The statues of Saint Peter and the Magdalen, dated to the 1st quarter of the 13th century and removed from the western facade of the cathedral in 1970, are presented here. This room also exhibits the six remaining tapestries from a set of 29 pieces woven in Reims in the 17th century by the Flemish weaver Daniel Pepersack for Archbishop Henri of Lorraine, representing episodes from the life of Christ.
The statue representing a king of Judah gives its name to this room of modest dimensions. This imposing 4.2m tall statue, dating from the mid-14th century, stood at the base of one of the cathedral's towers in the Kings' Gallery.
This room owes its name to the gable called Coronation of the Virgin coming from the central portal of the cathedral. This gable, 8 m wide and 5.5 m high, exhibited here above the grand staircase, was removed in 1948-1949. This room has several tapestries from the Life of Notre-Dame hanging. These were donated in 1530 by Robert de Lenoncourt, then Archbishop of Reims. Sculptures of kings, one of which is attributed to the representation of Philippe Auguste, frame the tapestries.
From April 13 to July 28, 2019: Marie of Romania, queen and artist.
From January 27 to April 8, 2018 Speedy Graphito at the Palais du Tau.
From October 7, 2017 to January 7, 2018: Divine Ornaments, textile
treasures from Reims Cathedral.
From November 11 to 13, 2016:
Museomix.
From May 24 to November 2, 2014: Royal Coronations, from
Louis XIII to Charles X, with the participation of the Palace of
Versailles.
From June 29 to November 4, 2001: 20 centuries in
cathedrals.
Retrospective exhibition of 1895, new exhibition based on
the same principle as that of 1876
Retrospective exhibition of 1876,
presentation of the collections of local notables and recent
archaeological discoveries