On the site now occupied by the Palais de Justice, on the Ile de la Cité, the Gauls, followed by the Romans and later the Merovingians, built their fortified settlements and strongholds. This was the cradle of French royal authority. In the reign of Louis IX (St Louis; 1226- 70) the royal residence, with the newly built Sainte-Chapelle, reached the peak of its magnificence.
After the storming of the palace in 1358 by the rebellious merchants of Paris under the leadership of Etienne Marcel, however, the court moved to the Louvre. From the 16th century onwards the palace was the seat of the Parlement de Paris, the highest French court of justice, whose assent was necessary for all laws promulgated by the king. This privilege was abolished by the young king Louis XIV after the Fronde (1648-52), a revolt against the royal authority. The French Revolution later removed both the king and the Parlement, sending all its members to the scaffold.
The new citizens' courts moved into the old palace, which now became known as the Palais de Justice. Thereafter the building suffered much damage and destruction by fire and in the course of time was much altered, until finally at the turn of the century the Palais de Justice took its present form. The south wing was added in 1911-14. The Palais houses the civil and criminal courts, with the criminal investigation department in the south wing on the Quai des Orfèvres.
At the entrance to the Palais de Justice, in the Cour de Mai (where the maypole used to be set up), is a magnificent wrought-iron gate dating from the time of Louis XVI (1787). From here a flight of steps leads up to the Galerie Marchande (Merchants' Hall), which in the time of Louis IX was a passage between the royal palace and the Sainte-Chapelle; before the Revolution it was crowded with merchants offering their wares. This leads into the Salle des Pas Perdus ("Hall of the Lost Steps") - an allusion to the time wasted here by hopeful litigants. The hall is situated directly above the Salle des Gens d'Armes in the Conciergerie, the old Grande Salle of the royal palace, in which the king signed important treaties and held official receptions. The neo-classical decor is a reproduction of the original decoration by Salomon de Brosse, restored after a fire in 1871. From the Galerie Duc, named after the architect and restorer of ancient monuments Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le- Duc (1814-79), there is a view of the Sainte- Chapelle and, at the other end, of the Cour des Femmes of the Conciergerie. In the Vestibule de Harlay are statues of Charlemagne, Philippe Auguste, Louis IX and Napoleon, monarchs who were particularly concerned with law-making.
Opening off the Salle des Pas Perdus is the Chambre Dorée, the Première Chambre Civile, which was originally Louis IX's bedroom and in 1793 became the Salle de la Liberté, seat of the revolutionary tribunal which passed over 2,000 sentences of death, including that of Marie- Antoinette. The neo-Renaissance decor dates from the 19th century.
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Palais de Justice in Paris.
Gate at the entrance to the Palais de Justice in Paris.
