Exterior view

During the regency of Marie de Médicis, architects like Salomon de Brosse, François Mansart, and Louis Le Vau conducted intensive research into modern methods for resolving traditional building problems. They developed models of palace and church buildings which were to have lasting influence, not only for French Baroque architecture.

Salomon de Brosse, court architect and member of a well-known family of architects, built three major palaces during the second decade of the seventeenth century: Coulommiers (1613), Blérancourt (1614-19) and the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris (1615-24). These were highly regarded and were a major influence on this type of architecture for a long time to come.

The palace was the royal residence of the regent Marie de Médicis, mother of Louis XIII of France. After the Revolution it was refashioned into a legislative building and subsequently greatly enlarged and remodeled. Since 1958 it is the seat of the French Senate.

The picture shows the garden façade of the palace.

View the ground plan of the Palais du Luxembourg.