Palais de la Cité
France · Europe
About
The Palais de la Cité (French pronunciation: [palɛ d(ə) la site]), located on the Seine River's Île de la Cité, is a major historic building in the centre of Paris, France. It was an occasional residence of the Kings of France from the early 6th to the 12th century and a permanent one from the late 12th to the 14th century, and has been the center of the French justice system ever since, for which it is also referred to as the Palais de Justice.
From the 14th century until the French Revolution, the Palais was the headquarters of the Parlement of Paris. During the Revolution it served as a courthouse and prison, where Marie Antoinette and other prisoners were held and tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal. Since the early 19th century, it has been the seat of the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris, the Court of Appeal of Paris, and the Court of Cassation. The first of these moved to another Parisian location in 2018, while the latter two jurisdictions remain located in the Palais de la Cité as of 2025.
The palace was built up and restructured many times over the course of many centuries, including following major fires in 1618, 1776 and 1871. Its salient medieval remains are the Sainte-Chapelle, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture, and the Conciergerie, an early-14th-century palatial complex that served as a prison from 1380 to 1914. Most of its other current structures were rebuilt from the late 18th to early 20th centuries. The Conciergerie and Sainte-Chapelle can be visited via separate entrances.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.