Trocadéro, Paris
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The Trocadéro (), site of the
Palais de Chaillot The Palais de Chaillot () is a building at the top of the in the Trocadéro area in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. Design The building was designed in classicising " moderne" style by architects Louis-Hippolyte Boileau, Jacques ...
, is an area of
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, in the
16th arrondissement The 16th arrondissement of Paris (; ) is the westernmost of the 20 arrondissements of Paris, the capital city of France. Located on the city's Right Bank, it is adjacent to the 17th and 8th arrondissements to the northeast, as well as to the ...
, across the
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 ...
from the
Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...
. It is also the name of the 1878
Trocadéro Palace The Trocadéro Palace was an Eclecticism, eclectic building of Moorish architecture, Moorish and Neo-Byzantine architecture, neo-Byzantine inspiration dating from the second half of the 19th century. Located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris ...
which was demolished in 1937 to make way for the
Palais de Chaillot The Palais de Chaillot () is a building at the top of the in the Trocadéro area in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. Design The building was designed in classicising " moderne" style by architects Louis-Hippolyte Boileau, Jacques ...
. The hill of the Trocadéro is the hill of Chaillot, a former village.


Origin of the name

The place was named in honour of the
Battle of Trocadero The Battle of Trocadero, fought on 31 August 1823, was a significant battle in France's expedition in support of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII. The French defeated the Spanish liberal forces and restored Ferdinand to absolute rule. Prelude Af ...
, in which the fortified Isla del Trocadero, in southern
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, was captured by French forces led by the Duc d'Angoulême, son of the future King of France,
Charles X Charles X may refer to: * Charles X of France (1757–1836) * Charles X Gustav (1622–1660), King of Sweden * Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon (1523–1590), recognized as Charles X of France but renounced the royal title See also * * King Charle ...
, on 31 August 1823. France had intervened on behalf of King
Ferdinand VII of Spain Ferdinand VII (; 14 October 1784 – 29 September 1833) was Monarchy of Spain, King of Spain during the early 19th century. He reigned briefly in 1808 and then again from 1813 to his death in 1833. Before 1813 he was known as ''el Deseado'' (t ...
, whose rule was contested by a liberal rebellion. After the battle, the autocratic Spanish Bourbon Ferdinand VII was restored to the throne of Spain.
François-René de Chateaubriand François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848) was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who influenced French literature of the nineteenth century. Descended from an old aristocratic family from Bri ...
said "To stride across the lands of Spain at one go, to succeed there, where Bonaparte had failed, to triumph on that same soil where the arms of the fantastic man suffered reverses, to do in six months what he couldn't do in seven years, that was truly prodigious!" Nowadays the square is officially named Place du Trocadéro et (and) du 11 Novembre (for the WWI armistice), although it is usually simply called the Place du Trocadéro.


Palais du Trocadéro

The hill of Chaillot was first arranged for the 1867
World's Fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition, is a large global exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specific site for a perio ...
. For the 1878 World's Fair, the (old) ''Palais du Trocadéro'' (1878–1936) was built here (where meetings of international organizations could be held during the fair). The palace's form was that of a large concert hall with two wings and two towers; its style was a mixture of exotic and historical references, generally called "
Moorish The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defi ...
" but with some
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
elements. The architect was
Gabriel Davioud Jean-Antoine-Gabriel Davioud (; 30 October 1824 – 6 April 1881) was a French architect. He worked closely with Baron Haussmann on the transformation of Paris under Napoleon III during the Second Empire. Davioud is remembered for his contributio ...
. The concert hall contained a large
organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...
built by
Aristide Cavaillé-Coll Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (; 4 February 1811 – 13 October 1899) was a French organ builder. He has the reputation of being the most distinguished organ builder of the 19th century. He pioneered innovations in the art and science of organ build ...
; the first large organ to be installed in a concert hall in France (it has since been modified twice, and eventually moved in 1977 to the Auditorium Maurice Ravel in
Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
, where it is still in use today. The organ was inaugurated during the 1878 World Fair with a concert in which Charles Marie Widor played the premiere of his Symphony for Organ No. 6. The building proved unpopular, but the cost expended in its construction delayed its replacement for nearly fifty years. Below the building in the space left by former underground quarries, a large aquarium was built to contain fish of French rivers. It was renovated in 1937 but closed again for renovation from 1985 until 22 May 2006. The space between the palais and the Seine is set with gardens, designed by Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, and an array of fountains. Within its garden, the old palace contained two large animal statues, of a rhinoceros and an elephant, which were removed and stored during the demolition of the old Trocadero palace, and have been located next to the entrance of the
Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...
since 1986.


Palais de Chaillot

For the Exposition Internationale of 1937, the old Palais du Trocadéro was partly demolished and partly rebuilt and the Palais de Chaillot now tops the hill. It was designed in classicizing " moderne" style by architects Louis-Hippolyte Boileau,
Jacques Carlu Jacques Carlu (7 April 1890 Bonnières-sur-Seine – 3 December 1976 Paris) was a French architect and designer, working mostly in Art Deco style, active in France, Canada, and in the United States. Biography Through the 1910s Carlu studied on ...
and Léon Azéma. Like the old palais, the Palais de Chaillot features two wings shaped to form a wide arc; reclad and expanded, these wings and the pair of central pavilions are the only remaining portion of the former building. However, unlike the old palais, the wings are independent buildings and there is no central element to connect them: instead, a wide esplanade leaves an open view from the place du Trocadéro to the Eiffel Tower and beyond.Esprits des lieux. Du Trocadéro au palais de Chaillot, La Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine / le Musée des monuments français / les Archives nationales, 2011, 140 p. (), p. 22 The buildings are decorated with quotations by
Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, m ...
, and sculptural groups at the attic level by Raymond Delamarre, Carlo Sarrabezolles and Alfred Bottiau. The eight gilded figures on the terrace of the Rights of Man are attributed to the sculptors Alexandre Descatoire, Marcel Gimond, Jean Paris dit Pryas, Paul Cornet, Lucien Brasseur, Robert Couturier, Paul Niclausse, and Félix-Alexandre Desruelles. The buildings now house a number of museums: * the ''
Musée national de la Marine The Musée national de la Marine (; "National Navy Museum") is a maritime museum located in the Palais de Chaillot, Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. It has annexes at Brest, Port-Louis, Rochefort ( Musée National de la Ma ...
'' (naval museum) and the ''
Musée de l'Homme The Musée de l'Homme (; literally "Museum of Mankind" or "Museum of Humanity") is an anthropology museum in Paris, France. It was established in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moder ...
'' (ethnology) in the southern (Passy) wing. * the ''
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine The Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine (, ''Architecture and Heritage City'') is a museum of architecture and monumental sculpture located in the Palais de Chaillot ( Trocadéro), in Paris, France. Its permanent collection is also known a ...
'', including the ''
Musée national des Monuments Français The Musée national des Monuments Français (; ) is today a museum of plaster casts of French monuments located in the Palais de Chaillot, 1, place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, Paris, France. It now forms part of the Cité de l'Architectur ...
'', in the eastern (Paris) wing, from which one also enters the '' Théâtre national de Chaillot'', a theater below the esplanade. It was on the front terrace of the palace that
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
was pictured during his short tour of the city in 1940, with the Eiffel Tower in the background. This became an iconic image of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. It is in the Palais de Chaillot that the
United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...
adopted the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal D ...
on 10 December 1948. This event is now commemorated by a stone, and the esplanade is known as the ''esplanade des droits de l'homme'' (English: "Esplanade of Human Rights"). The Palais de Chaillot was also the initial headquarters of
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
, while the "Palais de l'OTAN" (now
Université Paris Dauphine Paris Dauphine University - PSL () is a Grande École and public institution of higher education and research based in Paris, France, Collegiate university, constituent college of PSL University. As of 2022, Dauphine has 9,400 students in 8 fields ...
) was being built.


Jardins du Trocadéro

The Jardins du Trocadéro occupy the open space bounded to the northwest by the wings of the Palais de Chaillot and to the southeast by the Seine and the
Pont d'Iéna Pont d'Iéna (, "Jena Bridge") is a bridge spanning the River Seine in Paris. It links the Eiffel Tower on the Left Bank to the district of Trocadéro on the Right Bank. History In 1807, by an imperial decree issued in Warsaw, Napoleon I ord ...
. The present garden has an area of and was created for the
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) The ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne'' (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) was held from 25 May to 25 November 1937 in Paris, France. Both the Palais de Chaillot, housing the Mu ...
, on the design of architect
Roger-Henri Expert Roger-Henri Expert (18 April 1882 – 13 April 1955) was a French architect. Life The son of a merchant, Expert first studied painting at the École des beaux-arts in Bordeaux, then from 1906 attended the École nationale supérieure des Bea ...
. The entire site was formerly the garden of the old Palais du Trocadéro, laid out by Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand.


Others

Five avenues originate in the Trocadéro: the Avenue Henri-Martin, which links the Trocadéro with the Porte de la Muette and passes in front of the
Lycée Janson de Sailly 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 ...
(Janson de Sailly secondary school); the Avenue
Paul Doumer Joseph Athanase Doumer, commonly known as Paul Doumer (; 22 March 18577 May 1932), was a French politician who served as the President of France from June 1931 until his assassination in May 1932. He is described as "the Father of French Indochin ...
, which also approaches the Muette; the Avenue d'Eylau, which goes to the Mexico Plaza; the Avenue Kléber, which goes to the Place Charles de Gaulle; and the Avenue du Président Wilson, which goes to the
Pont de l'Alma Pont, meaning "bridge" in French, may refer to: Places France * Pont, Côte-d'Or, in the Côte-d'Or ''département'' * Pont-Bellanger, in the Calvados ''département'' * Pont-d'Ouilly, in the Calvados ''département'' * Pont-Farcy, in the Cal ...
and the Seine. There is a large municipal library (the Germaine Tillion Library, named after the resistance member and ethnologist) near (to the west of) the Trocadéro's square. The high retaining walls of the Trocadero cemetery ( Cimetière de Passy) were constructed by the French industrialist François Coignet.


Education

The Institut Culturel Franco-Japonais – École Japonaise de Paris opened at the Trocadéro in 1973. It moved to its current location at
Montigny-le-Bretonneux Montigny-le-Bretonneux () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the south-western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris, in the " new town" of Saint-Quentin-en-Yveli ...
in 1990.Conte-Helm, Marie. '' The Japanese and Europe: Economic and Cultural Encounters'' (Bloomsbury Academic Collections).
A&C Black A & C Black is a British book publishing company, owned since 2002 by Bloomsbury Publishing. The company is noted for publishing ''Who's Who'' since 1849 and the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' between 1827 and 1903. It offers a wide variety of boo ...
, December 17, 2013. , , p
84


Access


Trocadéro today

Trocadéro is a popular tourist destination to take pictures of the
Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...
. The Place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre is also where the
Paris Saint-Germain F.C. Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. With 52 major trophies ...
celebrates its French championships victories and where sometimes reporters from the US come to show the evidence of their presence in the French territory.Manny Di Branson aka Gilles Poitou


See also

* Antoine Sartorio *
Trocadéro Palace The Trocadéro Palace was an Eclecticism, eclectic building of Moorish architecture, Moorish and Neo-Byzantine architecture, neo-Byzantine inspiration dating from the second half of the 19th century. Located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris ...
*
Trocadéro Fountain The Trocadéro Fountain, also known as the Warsaw Fountain, is a fountain located in the Jardins du Trocadéro, Trocadéro Gardens, situated below the Palais de Chaillot in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. The fountain's footprint (lawn ...


References


External links


Photos of Trocadero in Paris







The Palais de Chaillot while it was being renovated

Commemorative stone dedication on Trocadéro Human Rights Plaza, October 17, 1987


* ttp://www.arounder.eu/parigi/trocadero.html France, Paris, TrocadéroVirtual tour with map and compass effect by Tolomeus {{DEFAULTSORT:Trocadero Districts of Paris 16th arrondissement of Paris Modernist architecture in France Art Deco architecture in France World's fair architecture in Paris Terminating vistas in Paris Buildings and structures in the 16th arrondissement of Paris Venues of the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic volleyball venues Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême