Paris - Pavillon de l'Arsenal

Originally designed in 1878 as a private museum for a collection of watercolors, the Pavillon de l'Arsenal was opened in December 1988 as a documentation and information center on the history of Paris.

With 1,600sq.m/17,200sq.ft of exhibition space, the center illustrates the development of the city and its architecture. The central feature of the permanent exhibition on "Paris, the City and its Projects", which occupies half the area of the center, is a large model (40sq.m/430sq.ft) of the city on the scale of 1:2,000. Special exhibitions, changing every three months, are devoted to particular themes in the history of Paris, often with comparisons between Paris and other European cities, and another exhibition illustrates new projects currently under way.

Excellent informative material on French architectural history is supplied by the Documentation Center and Phototheque.