Royal Palace

The Palais Royal in Paris's 1st arrondissement, about 150 meters north of the Louvre, was originally the residence of Cardinal Richelieu and was known until his death in 1642 as the Palais Cardinal. Richelieu had it built from 1628 by Jacques Lemercier and bequeathed it to the Crown; the young Anne of Austria with the child Louis XIV lived there afterwards, and later the Orleans family. In the late 18th century Philippe Egalite opened the arcades of the inner courtyard as commercial passages with cafes, gambling salons and booksellers, considered the first site of modern public consumer culture in Paris. Today the palace houses the Council of State, the Comedie-Francaise and the Constitutional Council in the west wing, and the Ministry of Culture in the east wing. Since 1986 the black-and-white striped column stumps by Daniel Buren stand in the cour d'honneur, behind them the long publicly accessible garden courtyard with fountains, book arcades and boules pitches.