The Lycée Henri-IV () is a public
secondary school
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
located in Paris. Along with the
Lycée Louis-le-Grand, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and demanding sixth-form colleges (''
lycées'') in France.
The school educates more than 2,500 students from ''collège'' (the first four years of
secondary education in France
In France, secondary education is in two stages:
* ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14.
* ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...
) to ''
classes préparatoires'' (preparatory classes to prepare students for entry to the
elite
In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...
grandes écoles Grandes may refer to:
*Agustín Muñoz Grandes, Spanish general and politician
* Banksia ser. Grandes, a series of plant species native to Australia
* Grandes y San Martín, a municipality located in the province of Ávila, Castile and León, Spain ...
such as
École normale supérieure
École or Ecole may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...
,
École polytechnique
(, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris.
The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...
,
Centrale Paris,
Mines ParisTech,
ISAE-SUPAERO,
HEC Paris,
ESSEC Business School, and
ESCP Europe, among others).
Its motto is ''"Domus Omnibus Una"'' ("A Home For All").
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Buildings and history
Lycée Henri-IV is located in the former royal
Abbey of St Genevieve, in the heart of the
Latin Quarter on the
left bank
In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water.
Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography.
In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...
of the river
Seine
The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...
, near the
Panthéon
The Panthéon (, ), is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, Paris, Latin Quarter (Quartier latin), atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was built between 1758 ...
, the church
Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, and the
rue Mouffetard. Rich in history, architecture and culture, the Latin Quarter contains France's oldest and the most prestigious educational establishments: the
École Normale Supérieure
École or Ecole may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...
, the
Sorbonne, the
Collège de France, the
Lycée Saint-Louis and the
Lycée Louis-le-Grand.
The abbey was first established in 506; it flourished as a consequence of royal patronage, becoming an integral part of the
Sorbonne and housing a great library. The abbey was suppressed during the
French Revolution, and in October 1796 the site became the first of many public schools in France. The lycée's name has changed several times since its inception–École Centrale du Panthéon (1794–1804); Lycée Napoléon (1804–1815); Collège Henri IV (1815–1848); Lycée Napoléon (1848–1870) and Lycée Corneille (1870–1872)–before its current name was settled on in 1873.
Today Henri-IV retains many features of the former abbey. The former abbey's library, which had the third-largest collection of books in Europe (transferred to the nearby
Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève during the 19th century), is composed of four aisles forming a cross with a cupola in the intersection. It is one of the main features of the Lycée with its 18th-century ''boiseries'' and pavement as well as a cupola frescoed and carved by the painter
Jean II Restout in the 1730s. Two aisles of the library are now used as libraries for ''Lycée'' and ''Classes Préparatoires'' levels and the two other aisles are used as rooms for conferences and exams. Another highlight is the ''Salle des médailles'' (Room of the medals), a long gallery once used as a
cabinet of curiosities
Cabinets of curiosities ( and ), also known as wonder-rooms ( ), were encyclopedic collections of objects whose categorical boundaries were, in Renaissance Europe, yet to be defined. Although more rudimentary collections had preceded them, t ...
(a room used to display natural curiosities and artworks). It has richly decorated and carved baroque ''boiseries'' and mirrors dating back to the 18th century. The lycée's chapel dates back to the Middle Ages as does the cloister and the ''
Clovis tower'', perhaps the lycée's most famous feature. The ''Salle des Actes'' displays medieval effigies of the abbey's monks, discovered during restoration in the 1990s. The main staircase, named the ''escalier de la Vierge'' (Virgin Mary's staircase), which has a 17th-century statue of the
Virgin Mary
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
as its centrepiece, is another striking feature.
Notable alumni
*
Eugène Albertini, epigrapher
*
Dov Alfon, journalist, writer, editor-in-chief and head of editorial strategy of the French newspaper
Libération
(), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...
*
Victor Baltard
Victor Baltard (; 9 June 180513 January 1874) was a French architect famed for work in Paris including designing Les Halles market and the Saint-Augustin church.
Life
Victor was born in Paris, son of architect Louis-Pierre Baltard and attended ...
, architect
*
Delphine Batho, politician
*
Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard (, ; ; – 6 March 2007) was a French sociology, sociologist and philosopher with an interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as hi ...
, sociologist
*
Guy Béart, singer
*
Ferdinand de Lesseps, Diplomat and entrepreneur responsible for the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...
*
Marcellin Berthelot, chemist
*
Léon Blum, French prime minister (during the ''
Popular Front'' government)
*
Jean-Louis Bory
Jean-Louis Bory (25 June 1919 – 11/12 June 1979) was a French writer, journalist, and film critic.
Life
Jean-Louis Bory was born on 25 June 1919 in Méréville, Essonne.
The son of a pharmacist and a teacher, he came from a family of teach ...
, novelist and film critic
*
Patrick Boucheron, historian
*
Jacques de Bourbon Busset, co-founder of
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...
, member of the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
*
Patrick Bruel, French singer-writer (who refers to the lycée in his song "Place des grands hommes")
*
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel ( ; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engi ...
, British engineer
*
René Capitant, lawyer and politician
*
Augustin-Louis Cauchy
Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy ( , , ; ; 21 August 1789 – 23 May 1857) was a French mathematician, engineer, and physicist. He was one of the first to rigorously state and prove the key theorems of calculus (thereby creating real a ...
, mathematician, engineer, and physicist
*
Camille Dalmais, singer
*
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Louis René Deleuze (18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes o ...
, philosopher
*
Claire Dorland-Clauzel,
Michelin
Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...
's head of communications
*
Arthur Dreyfus, journalist and writer
*
Esther Duflo
Esther Duflo, FBA (; born 25 October 1972) is a French-American economist currently serving as the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2019, she w ...
, economist, professor at the MIT, recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal in 2010,
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (), commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics(), is an award in the field of economic sciences adminis ...
, 2019.
*
Léon-Paul Fargue, poet
*
Valentin Feldman, philosopher and member of the
French resistance
The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...
*
Michel Foucault
Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...
, philosopher
*
Paul Fournel, writer and bicyclist
*
Georges Friedmann, sociologist
*
André Gide, writer,
Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
1947.
*
Julien Gracq
Julien Gracq (; born Louis Poirier; 27 July 1910 – 22 December 2007) was a French writer. He wrote novels, critiques, a play, and poetry. His literary works were noted for their dreamlike abstraction, elegant style and refined vocabulary. He ...
, writer
*
Georges-Eugène Haussmann, baron, préfet, and city planner
*
Stella Jang, Korean singer-songwriter
*
Alfred Jarry, writer, best known for ''
Ubu Roi''
*
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, historian, best known for
Montaillou
*
Claude Lefort, philosopher and political activist
*
Pierre Loti, sailor and writer
*
Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...
, French President
*
Jacques Maritain, philosopher
*
Carlo Marochetti, sculptor
*
Jean Malaurie, anthropologist, biologist and writer
*
Guy de Maupassant, writer
*
Prosper Mérimée, writer (of ''Carmen'', for example)
*
Christopher Meyer, British ambassador to the United States
*
Marius Moutet, diplomat
*
Alfred de Musset, playwright and poet
*
Paul Nizan, philosopher and writer
*
Henri d'Orléans, Count of Paris,
pretender to the French throne
*
Jean d'Ormesson, novelist, fellow of the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
*
Mazarine Pingeot, novelist and journalist, daughter of French president
François Mitterrand
*
Plantu, cartoonist for ''
Le Monde
(; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...
''
*
Henri Pourrat, writer and anthropologist
*
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (; 14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Ar ...
, painter
*
Didier Ratsiraka, former
President of Madagascar
*
Pierre Restany, art critic and cultural philosopher
*
Éric Rohmer
Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer (; 21 March 192011 January 2010), was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher. Rohmer was the last of the Post-war, p ...
, New Wave director, writer and actor
*
Michel Sapin, Deputy Minister of Justice from May 1991 to April 1992, Finance Minister from April 1992 to March 1993, and Minister of Civil Servants and State Reforms from March 2000 to May 2002. Current Finance Minister.
1964.
*