The BnF Museum – Web site Richelieu
5 rue Vivienne, 2nd
M° Pyramides or Bourse
Open Tuesday – Sunday 10am-6pm (Tuesday evening till 8pm).
Closed on French holidays besides Could eighth, Ascension Thursday, and Toussaint (November 1st).
Entry €10 (€13 in the event you additionally need to see the momentary exhibition). Entry to the Salle Ovale studying room is free.
www.bnf.fr/fr/le-musee-de-la-bnf
After 12 years of restoration, renovation, and transformation, the historic Bibliothèque Nationale de France’s new museum opened to most people in September 2022, in celebration of its 300th anniversary. Whereas a library museum may not sound very thrilling, it homes a few of France’s best treasures collected by French monarchs for the reason that Center Ages. The richly-decorated baroque décor of the Mazarin Gallery alone is definitely worth the value of admission.
First constructed within the seventeenth century to deal with the artwork collections of Cardinal Mazarin – Chief Minister to King Louis XIII and the Solar King Louis XIV – the constructing simply north of the Palais Royal grew to become residence to the Bibliothèque du Roi (or King’s Library) in 1721, incorporating the royal assortment of books and treasures handed down from successive kings relationship again to Charles V in 1380.
Along with books, the library additionally housed the royal treasures within the Cupboard du Roi, or King’s Cupboard, which included historic cash and medals, royal jewels, and statues and valuable gadgets from historic Greece and Rome. The labels on every merchandise make it clear whether or not they had been “acquired”, bought, or acquired as donations. After the 1789 French Revolution – the place miraculously the collections remained nearly unhurt – it grew to become the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, or the French Nationwide Library, the place each the e book and treasure collections continued to develop via successive acquisitions and donations.
Entrance to the museum and different areas open to the general public – together with the small bookshop, the café, and the Salle Ovale studying room – is through the newly-created backyard at 5 Rue Vivienne. As soon as you buy your ticket, the museum is upstairs, through a contemporary steel staircase that echoes these discovered within the newly-renovated Carnavalet and Maison Victor Hugo museums. The collections are organized chronologically via a succession of rooms, every with extra fabulous décor than the final, culminating within the Galerie Mazarin, a superb baroque gallery paying homage to the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery.
A few of the museum’s highlights:
- The 7th-century throne of King Dagobert, the final of the Merovingian kings of France.
- Masterpieces of Roman and Gallo-Roman silverware relationship from the first to the third century discovered by a farmer plowing his discipline in Normandy in 1830.
- Renaissance-era royal jewels commissioned by François I and Catherine de Medici.
- A 1st-century Greek pill depicting a scene from Homer’s Iliad (“seized” by the French navy in 1798).
- A big assortment of “turtle” cash from the traditional Greek island of Aegina, considered the primary cash made in Europe, circa 400BC.
- Gilded prayer books and bibles from Louis IX (later named Saint Louis).
- Unique handwritten manuscripts from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris and Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Intercourse.
Sensible Data
Whereas among the bigger indicators are in French and English, the person merchandise descriptions are solely in French, so you should definitely use the free multilingual app accessible on the BnF web site right here if you’d like to have the ability to get essentially the most out of the museum (simply kind within the three-digit code for any merchandise within the museum to search out the outline). There are additionally interactive screens in every room which might be multi-lingual providing in-depth details about sure works. The tales behind the works are sometimes as attention-grabbing than the gadgets themselves, so it’s value taking the time to learn the descriptions or learn forward to know what you’ll be .
Entrance to the everlasting assortment is €10 for adults; €13 in the event you’d prefer to additionally go to the momentary reveals (each free for college students with ID). You may buy a timed ticket on-line to skip the road (advisable), though remember they don’t appear to have their complete web site accessible in English but.
There are lockers in your coats or bulkier baggage that aren’t allowed into the museum. You’ll want a €1 or €2 coin to function it, however in the event you don’t have one simply request a token (un jeton) from the entrance desk workers.
Permit your self two hours in the event you don’t need to be rushed via the everlasting assortment, longer in the event you plan on additionally visiting the momentary exhibitions.
The Library Studying Room
The Salle Ovale studying room can be open free to the general public, area allowing. Right here you’ll be able to calm down with your personal e book or browse the collections of 20,000 books, together with reference books, magazines, French literature, and 9,000 comedian books/graphic novels relationship again to the 1830s. There are 9 ‘digital mediation’ terminals within the Salle Ovale to go looking the collections and browse concerning the BnF’s historical past, structure, and the way it works.
Notice: There are sections of the BnF Richelieu solely accessible to college students and researchers who’ve utilized for entry (they’ve a separate entrance at 58 Rue Richelieu). In case you’re undecided whether or not any specific room is open to most people, don’t be shy about asking any of the useful librarian workers you’ll see all through the constructing.
The Museum Café
There’s a department of the favored Rose Bakery on the bottom flooring of the library serving snacks and lightweight meals in addition to cold and hot drinks, with some tables exterior within the backyard as effectively. Open Tues 10am -7pm and Wed-Solar 10am-6pm.
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