The hôtel was built from 1776 to 1792 for Alexandre de Galliffet, a baron grown rich from his plantations in the Caribbean. The building is now home to the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris.
Virtually the whole court façade is a stately temple front over two storeys with a horizontal top, a scheme more appropriate to the decorum of public buildings than the residence of a social climber.
The picture shows a detail of the garden front.
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