Palais Rohan or Rohan Palace is a former palace that houses Musee des Beaux Arts (Museum of Fine Arts), the Musee Archeologique (Archeological Museum), and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs (Museum of Applied Arts). Additionally Rohan Palace contains a rich collection of ceramics.
2 pl du Chateau
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Open: Wed- Mon
Closed: Jan 1, Good Fri, May 1, Nov 1 & 11, Dec 25
Rohan Palace was originally constructed in 1731- 42 under supervision of a famous architect Joseph Massol and engineer Robert de Kotte. It was intended as an official residence of Prince- Bishops of Strasbourg. In 1744 Rohan Palace was used to host a French king Louis XV and in early 1770's Marie Antoinette during her visits to Strasbourg. In 1805- 06 palace served as a residence for French Emperor Napoleon I and his first wife Josephine de Beauharnais. On his orders several halls and rooms were re- decorated and slightly altered to fit his taste. Later in 1810 Napoleon's second wife Marie- Louise spent her first night on the French soil. Today Rohan Palais is one of the most popular destinations in Strasbourg.
This 18th century building was built between 1732 and 1742 by
architect Robert de Cotte for Prince-Bishop Armand-Gaston-Maximilien de
Rohan to replace the previous episcopal palace. It is built in the
classical style, which became fashionable after the French conquest of
Strasbourg.
From 1704, Armand-Gaston-Maximilien de Rohan bought
several buildings near the cathedral. In 1727, he demolished the old
buildings on the banks of the Ill and built the palace. Robert de Cotte
draws up the plans, Laurent Gourlade leads the work. He will be replaced
later by Joseph Massol. The buildings started in 1732 were finished ten
years later.
During the French Revolution, the building served as
a place of detention. December 21, 1794 marked the solemn opening of the
Imperial School of the Military Health Service in Strasbourg, intended
to train Health Officers. Classes take place at the Palais Rohan. After
the defeat of 1870, the school was transferred to Lyon.
After the
German annexation of Strasbourg, the palace housed the courses of the
new Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universität (Emperor Wilhelm University) from 1872
until the opening of the new University Palace in 1884.
On April
3, 2009, on the sidelines of the NATO Strasbourg-Kehl 2009 summit, the
first meeting of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and newly elected US
President Barack Obama took place at the Rohan Palace.
In 2015,
from June 26 to November 29, the terrace of the Palais Rohan will host
the works of the winners of the Glass and Architecture competition,
organized as part of the International Glass Biennial.
The palace took the name of “Palais Rohan” because four
prince-bishops from the Rohan family succeeded each other in the 18th
century in the diocese of Strasbourg:
Cardinal
Armand-Gaston-Maximilien de Rohan;
Armand de Rohan-Soubise
(great-nephew of the previous);
Cardinal Louis-Constantin de Rohan
(cousin of the first);
Cardinal Louis-René de Rohan (nephew of the
previous one, compromised in the queen's necklace affair).
The visitor enters the main courtyard through the large portal, a
veritable monumental arch surmounted by statues representing Clemency
and Religion. The court of honor overlooks on the left and on the right
the administrative and utility buildings of the palace. The main body is
on two floors, the ground floor was reserved for the bishop, the floor
for his staff.
The main facade (Ill side) has seventeen axes
(windows), surrounding a central body with four engaged columns and
topped with a triangular pediment. To the west is a large library with a
large paired bay which softens the symmetry of the whole. The courtyard
facade is more intimate and comes alive with pilasters. Two short wings
in return house the entrance vestibules. To the north, facing the
cathedral, the monumental columned portal opens between two sumptuous
corner pavilions. The cost of the whole is estimated at one million
pounds, the furniture at three hundred thousand.
Large apartments
These are the parade apartments reserved for the
king or the distinguished guests that the cardinal received in his name.
They face south, towards the terrace overlooking the Ill.
Synod
Hall
The Synod Hall actually brings together two twin rooms, the
Guard Room and the Dining Room separated by arcades. The two covered
vases, in Chinese porcelain with blue and white decoration, date from
the end of the Ming period, i.e. from the middle of the 17th century,
and testify, among other works presented, to the cardinal's taste for
the arts. from the Far East.
Bishops' Hall
Like the
Œil-de-Bœuf salon in Versailles, the bishops' salon plays the role of a
second antechamber before the king's bedroom6. Enshrined in the fairly
simple white and gold paneling were the portraits of the cardinal's
seven predecessors and his own. Only this one has been preserved, the
others were destroyed in 1773 and were later replaced by allegories by
Joseph Melling. The palace having been transformed into a town hall and
the bishops' lounge into a municipal council meeting room, they embody
six civic virtues: Prudence, Peace, Immortality, Concord, Zeal and
Public Happiness. For some, the cold colors and the very sober design
mark the evolution of the painter – pupil of Boucher – towards a
neo-classical style, while others consider these works “bland”. Unlike
the paintings, the eight busts of Roman emperors – copies from the 17th
century – have retained their original location as the cardinal wanted.
king's bedroom
Known as the dais room under the Old Regime, it is
a prestigious room whose function is directly inspired by the etiquette
in use at the Palace of Versailles: serving as a setting for the sunrise
and sunset ceremony. of the prince6. It is distinguished by its carved,
painted and gilded oak woodwork, and its rococo style stucco ceiling. At
the back of the room, the royal alcove faces the three windows
overlooking the Ill. It is framed by fluted columns painted in faux
marble, surmounted by Corinthian capitals and connected by a white and
gold balustrade. Three tapestries from The History of Constantine — a
series of eight tapestries based on cartoons by Rubens present in all
the large apartments — adorn the back of the alcove6. Acquired by
Cardinal de Rohan in 1738, they come from Parisian workshops in the
Faubourg Saint-Marcel. The paintings on the overmantels between the
windows are originals by Pierre-Ignace Parrocel, a painter from a large
family of artists from Avignon whom the cardinal brought back in 1740
from Rome where the young man was training. These works depict Jesus and
the Samaritan Woman and The Temptation of Christ.
Аssembly hall
The large wall tapestry is part of the suite of eight The History of
Constantin tapestries decorating the large apartments, it represents The
Battle of Pont-Molle (or Battle of the Milvian Bridge).
Library
Four other tapestries illustrating the life of Constantine represent The
Marriage of Constantine, The Apparition of Chrism, Saint Helena and the
True Cross and The Baptism of Constantine6. Two portraits of monarchs in
coronation costume — Louis XIV and Louis XV — face each other. These are
copies of works by Hyacinthe Rigaud, made by Pierre Legendre. The bust
is that of Cardinal de Rohan, executed by Edmé Bouchardon in 1730.
Chapel
The chapel is adjacent to the library. It is decorated
with polychrome scagliola and three copies after Correggio entrusted to
Robert de Séry (1686-1733): The Nativity, The Virgin with Saint Jerome
and Saint Magdalene and The Rest on the Flight into Egypt ( 1724). The
carpet, of Turkish inspiration, was completed by the Aubusson factory in
1743. It bears the arms of Cardinal de Rohan.
The prince-bishop's apartments are oriented towards the north, on the
side of the main courtyard.
Antechamber of the Prince-Bishop
This room served as an antechamber to the private apartment under the
cardinals, then as a small dining room under the Empire. Severely
damaged during the bombardment of 1944, it underwent major restoration
work and did not retain its furniture. In particular, the old stove was
replaced by a similar earthenware stove, in the shape of an obelisk,
from the Strasbourg factory Acker around 1771.
Bedroom of
Napoleon I
Initially the cabinet of the Prince-Bishop, this room took
the name of “bedroom of Napoleon I” under the Empire. Several
distinguished guests would have stayed there: Napoleon in 1805, 1806 and
1809; Charles X from September 7 to 8, 1828; King-citizen Louis-Philippe
from June 18 to 21, 1831. Of the new furniture designed by
Jacob-Desmalter in 1807, only the bed remains. In 1809, the Parisian
cabinetmaker also made the seats that first furnished the Empress's
company salon on the first floor. According to the same source, the
emperor never actually occupied this room.
Office of the Oesinger
hotel
Restored, the woodwork comes from the first floor of the house
inhabited in the 18th century by the industrialist François-Daniel
Oesinger at 140, Grand-Rue. The fireplace is that of the living room of
the house where Professor Christophe-Guillaume Koch lived at 8, quai
Finkwiller. The rug was made in Eastern Anatolia in the 17th century.
The portrait is that of Nicolas François Coliny (1710-1776), doctor in
Strasbourg; it is due to Charles-Alexis Huin (1735-1796) in Strasbourg
in 1773.
The main rooms of this episcopal suite are completed by
wardrobes, lavatories and a stairway which communicates with the chapel.
The Rohan Palace now houses three different museums in addition to
the palace itself:
the Museum of Decorative Arts contains, on the one
hand, the original royal and cardinal apartments and, on the other hand,
a collection of ceramics, pieces of goldsmithery and furniture, as well
as a clock room presenting remains of the first or second astronomical
clock of Strasbourg Cathedral;
the Museum of Fine Arts, which
presents a very fine collection of paintings from the 14th to the 19th
century (Botticelli, Giotto, Memling, El Greco, Canaletto, Le Corrège,
Corot, Van Dyck, Goya, Rubens, etc.);
the Archaeological Museum,
installed since the end of the 19th century in the basement of the Rohan
Palace. This museum is one of the richest in France in its field, that
of “National Antiquities”. Reopened in 1992 after a complete
museographic reorganization of its collections, it invites you to
discover the most distant past of Alsace, from prehistory (600,000 BC)
to the dawn of the Middle Ages (800 AD). AD).