Luxembourg Palace

Luxembourg Palace
Palais du Luxembourg (French)
Luxembourg Palace garden façade
Location within Paris
General information
Location	Paris, France
Address	15 rue de Vaugirard
Coordinates	48°50′54″N 2°20′14″E / 48.84833°N 2.33722°E / 48.84833; 2.33722
Current tenants	French Senate
Construction started	1615
Completed	1645
Design and construction
Architect	Salomon de Brosse
Other designers	Jean Chalgrin Alphonse de Gisors

The Luxembourg Palace (French: Palais du Luxembourg, pronounced: [pa.lɛ dy lyk.sɑ̃.buːʁ]) is located at 15 rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of the regent Marie de Médicis, mother of Louis XIII of France. After the Revolution it was refashioned (1799–1805) by Jean Chalgrin into a legislative building and subsequently greatly enlarged and remodeled (1835–1856) by Alphonse de Gisors. Since 1958 it has been the seat of the French Senate of the Fifth Republic.

Immediately west of the palace on the rue de Vaugirard is the Petit Luxembourg, now the residence of the Senate President; and slightly further west, the Musée du Luxembourg, in the former orangery. On the south side of the palace, the formal Luxembourg Garden presents a 25-hectare green parterre of gravel and lawn populated with statues and large basins of water where children sail model boats.

After the death of Henry IV in 1610, his widow, Marie de Médicis, became regent to her son, Louis XIII. Having acceded to a much more powerful position, she decided to erect a new palace for herself, adjacent to an old hôtel particulier owned by François de Luxembourg, Duc de Piney, which is now called the Petit Luxembourg and is the residence of the president of the French Senate.