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Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts Review

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Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts

  • Address: 14 rue Bonaparte, St-Germain-des-Prés, Paris | Map It

Fodor's Review:

Occupying three large mansions near the Seine, the national fine-arts school—today the breeding ground for painters, sculptors, and architects—was once the site of a convent founded in 1608 by Marguerite de Valois, the first wife of Henri IV. After the Revolution the convent was turned into a museum for works of art salvaged from buildings attacked by the rampaging French mobs. In 1816 the museum was turned into a school. Today its peaceful courtyards harbor some contemporary installations and exhibits, and the school staff includes international art stars like Christian Boltanski and Annette Messager. You can wander into the courtyard and galleries of the school to see the casts and copies of the statues stored here for safekeeping during the Revolution.

  • Open: Daily 1-7
  • Metro: St-Germain-des-Prés
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