Pinsteps. Bibliothèque Nationale
Places to visit in Paris. Languages: en, he, ru

The Fontaine Louvois was built in 1830’s during the reign of King Louis-Philippe. The author of this fountain is the Italian architect Louis Visconti. He also worked on the fountain of Moliere and the construction of the Luxembourg gardens. This fontaine features in Episode 1 Season 4 of Gossip Girl. The Fontaine sits the place of former Théâtre National de la rue de la Loi which was very popular during the French Revolution. He had been built in 1792 and demolished in 1820. Right opposite the Fontaine essential part of the French National Library is located. It named after the famous cardinal Richelieu. But may be the right name of the library should be after cardinal Mazarin?

From the official site of the library:

The Library was originated in the private collections of Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661), Richelieu's successor and prime minister during Louis XIV's minority between 1643 and 1661. The library in Mazarin's mansion (which later became the historic site of the Bibliothèque nationale de France) was opened to scholars in 1643, making the Mazarine France's oldest public library. By the mid seventeenth century the collection approached 40,000 volumes. During the Fronde (1648-1652), when Mazarin fled Paris and his property was confiscated, this first library was dispersed in a public auction at the beginning of 1652. Back in power, Mazarin pieced part of it together again. He decided to attach it to the Collège des Quatre-Nations, a school he founded shortly before he died for the education of sixty young men from the four provinces annexed to the kingdom of France during his government (Alsace, Flanders, Roussillon and Pignerol).Amputated of its manuscripts, which were exchanged with the royal library in 1668, the collection was transferred to the grandiose building designed by Louis Le Vau for the Collège des Quatre-Nations. Reopened in 1689, the Mazarine Library continued to operate throughout the Revolution because it was public, while the college itself was closed down. Its librarian, Abbé Gaspard Michel, called Leblond, worked hard to channel books confiscated during the Revolution into the library's collections. Several thousand volumes came from aristocratic or monastery libraries (Notre Dame Cathedral, St Victor abbey, the abbey of Saint Germain des Prés, the Jacobin convent in the rue Saint Honoré, etc.), and from conquered territories. In this way the Library built up a remarkable collection of More than 350 years after its foundation, the Mazarine Library is a veritable museum of the book and a study and research library and it is still open to all.


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