Hôtel de la Marine

The architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel designed the building, built between 1757 and 1774, as the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, the store for the furniture and treasures of the French crown. In 1792 the crown diamonds kept here, among them the famous Regent Diamond, were stolen in one of the great thefts of history. From 1789 to 2015 the building housed the headquarters of the French Navy.

After a restoration that removed up to eighteen layers of paint to reveal the original decoration, the Centre des monuments nationaux opened the building to the public in June 2021. You walk through the apartments of the Intendant of the royal furniture store, decorated in 18th-century style, the grand reception rooms of the navy, and out onto the loggia with its twelve Corinthian columns, which looks across the Place de la Concorde. Part of the building shows the Al Thani Collection, about 120 works from a private collection of some 5,000, presented under a twenty-year agreement.

On Tiqets you can choose the permanent tour of the building or a ticket for the temporary exhibition of the Al Thani Collection.

The view from the loggia is one of the best over the Place de la Concorde, towards the obelisk, the Seine and the National Assembly. The Hôtel de la Marine is a short walk from the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre, and the Concorde metro station is right outside.