The Peninsula Paris

The Peninsula Paris
The Peninsula Paris
General information
Location	Paris, France
Address	19 Avenue Kléber
Opening	1908, 2014
Owner	Katara Hospitality, Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels
Management	The Peninsula Hotels
Design and construction
Architect	Armand Sibien (1908), Richard Martinet (2014)
Developer	Leonard Tauber
Other information
Number of rooms	200
Number of suites	34
Website
paris.peninsula.com

The Peninsula Paris is a historic luxury hotel, formerly known as the Hotel Majestic, located on Avenue Kléber in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. It opened in 1908 and was converted to government offices in 1936. The hotel served as a field hospital for wounded officers during World War I , staffed largely by British aristocrats. During World War II it served as the headquarters of the German military high command in France during the Nazi occupation of Paris. The hotel played a pivotal role in the deportation of Parisian Jews and the 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler. The building reopened as The Peninsula Paris in August 2014 following a complicated and costly restoration.

Avenue Kléber, part of Baron Haussmann's rebuilding plan for Paris, was originally known as avenue du Roi de Rome in tribute to Napoleon I’s son. In 1864, a rich Russian nobleman named constructed a palace at 19 avenue du Roi de Rome, designed by architect Clément Parent. Basilewski sold the palace in 1868 to the Duke of Sesto who paid for the mansion in behalf of Queen Isabella II of Spain, who had just exiled to Spain following the Glorious Revolution. The Duke of Sesto had preceded the queen to France and arranged for her welcome by Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie. The Duke of Sesto and Eugenie had known one another since they were both teenagers in Madrid. The Palacio Castilla was used as her home in exile where the Duke of Sesto and Queen Isabel plotted to have her son Prince Alfonso be elevated to the Spanish throne. The duke talked Queen Isabel II into abdicating on June 20, 1870, the ceremony taking place at Palacio Castilla in the presence of as many Spanish grandees as could be brought to Paris for the ceremony. The queen's abdication led toward France's declaration of war against Prussia less than a month later. Queen Isabel II continued to live in Paris while the Duke of Sesto succeeded in arousing support in Spain for Prince Alfonso who was welcomed into Madrid in 1875 as King Alfonso XII. However, he died at the age of 28 of tuberculosis and was succeeded by his son Alfonso XIII as an infant under the regency of his mother Queen Maria Cristina. The former Queen Isabel II continued to live in Paris until her death in 1904. The property was then acquired by hotel magnate Leonard Tauber after a bidding war that involved the United States government and the King of Belgium.