The Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal is, along with Tolbiac, Richelieu and l'Opéra, one of the four Parisian sites of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. This historic building is the former residence of the great masters of the artillery watching over the Arsenal and having given its name to the district. Antoine-René d'Argenson, Marquis de Paulmy, settled there in the middle of the 18th century and gathered a vast encyclopedic collection of books, manuscripts and prints open to scholars and people of letters. This fund, significantly enriched by the revolutionary confiscations, has continued to grow until us. The library welcomes researchers and scholars on a daily basis.
This place is also a historical monument with exceptional decorations, rarely shown to the public. The building is fully classified as a Historic Monument by order of 27 October 2003. The Artillery Hotel is built on the vestige of the rampart of Charles V (still visible in the cellars and present under the esplanade). Its oldest part is the gallery built in the time of Sully, north side. A second gallery was added on the south side in the 18th century by the architect Germain Boffrand. The architect Théodore Labrouste completed the complex in the 19th century with the construction of two pavilions, to the east and west.
The 2023 tour will discover: La Meilleraye and the Cabinet des femmes forts, a remarkable 17th century painted apartment. The reading room and its original decor of the Second Empire. The music room and its furniture in an 18th century rockery decor unique in France. The Sully rooms rare remains of reading room dating from the Restoration. The route will be animated by demonstrations of the restoration workshop and an exceptional exhibition of illuminated manuscripts, old prints and archives of the Bastille.
Access
Arsenal Library
Entrance: place du Père Teilhard de Chardin
Subway
Lines 7 Sully-Morland, 1, 5, and 8 Bastille
Bus
Line 67, 72, 86 and 87
https://www.bnf.fr/arsenallast entry at 17:00