Spring 2022

Lost Monuments
of Paris
Sue Aran explores the history of two of Paris’s lost palaces…
Paris is a city of contrasts – light and dark, old and new, past and present. Erased from the
memories of most Parisians, however, are two buildings: the Palais du Trocadéro and the Palais
Bardo. These ephemeral constructions of grandeur were richly imagined for the Paris World
Fairs Expositions Universelle. Paris hosted seven world fairs beginning in 1855 and ending in
1937. Visitors flocked from around the world and in 1900, Paris broke records with more than 50
million visitors and 83,000 exhibitors at that year’s Fair.
Palais du Trocadéro
The Palais du Trocadéro was built
for the Exposition Universelle of
1878 by architect Gabriel Davioud.
He was a colleague of Georges-
Eugène “Baron” Haussmann, the
urban planner who was responsible
for the spectacular renovation of
Paris during the reign of Napoléon
III in the mid-19th century. Davioud
designed most of the Parisian
street furniture we see today,
including the benches, lamp-posts,
signposts, fences, balustrades,
kiosks, pavilions, bandstands,
monuments and fountains, the
most recognizable of which is the landmark
fountain at Place Saint-Michel.
The Palais du Trocadéro was built on the hill
of Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel
Tower in the 16th arrondissement. The Palais
was named in honour of the 1823 Battle
of Trocadéro in which the fortified Isla del
Trocadero in Spain was captured by French
forces under the leadership of the Duc
d’Angoulême, the son of Charles X. Davioud
conceived the elaborate palace as a pastiche
of Byzantine and Moorish architecture where
meetings of international organizations
could be held during the fair. There was a
large concert hall flanked by two 76-meter
(249-foot) towers. The hall contained a large
Palais de ChaillotPalais du Trocadero, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
organ built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the first
large organ to be installed in a concert hall
in France. It is still in use at the Auditorium
Maurice Ravel in Lyon. The building proved
unpopular, but the cost expended in its
construction delayed its replacement for
nearly 50 years, and the central building was
finally demolished in 1937.
It was replaced by the Palais de Chaillot
for the International Exhibition of Arts and
Techniques held in 1937. The wings of the
Palais du Trocadéro were reused for the
Chaillot building. It’s now home to four cultural
institutions: the City of Architecture and
Heritage, the National Maritime Museum, the
The Good Life France | 57