Palais de Chaillot * All PYRENEES · France, Spain, Andorra

The Palais de Chaillot is a building at the top of the Chaillot hill at the Place du Trocadéro-et-du-11-Novembre in the 16th arrondissement in Paris (France).

For the Exposition Internationale of 1937, the old 1878 Palais du Trocadéro was partly demolished and partly rebuilt to create the Palais de Chaillot.

The building was designed in classicising “moderne” style by architects Louis-Hippolyte Boileau, Jacques Carlu and Léon Azéma. The Palais consists of two separate wings shaped to form a wide arc, which are those of the former Palais du Trocadéro with new taller portions built in front.

The pair of larger central pavilions are also those of the former Palais du Trocadéro, encapsulated in new construction. The large central hall and towers of the old palais were demolished, leaving only the basement, with a wide esplanade created on top, establishing an open view from the place du Trocadéro to the Eiffel Tower and beyond.

The buildings are decorated with quotations by Paul Valéry, 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 (naval museum) and the Musée de l’Homme (prehistory and anthropology) in the southern (Passy) wing,

the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, including the Musée national des Monuments Français, in the eastern (Paris) wing, from which one also enters the Théâtre national de Chaillot, a theatre below the esplanade.

It is served by lines (M) (6) (9) at the Trocadéro metro station.