Foto gentilmente concesse da Casa Editrice Bonechi


It was during the staging of the Exhibition of 1937 that the construction of this palace was started by the architects Boileau, Carlu and Azéma, re-developing the site of a previous building - the Trocadéro. A central terrace with gilded bronze statues links two enormous pavilions which stretch in two wings, like a long, curving embrace. From here, a wonderful complex of terraces, staircases and gardens descend towards the Seine: an oasis of green, enlivened by the sound of waterfalls and the splashes of jets of water. The two pavilions, which have verses of poetry by Valéry carved across their façade, today house the French Museum of Monuments (an important collection of medieval works), the Marine Museum (which also contains a model of the ship, La Belle Poule, which brought back the ashes of Napoleon from Saint Helena) and the Museum of Mankind, with its wonderfully rich anthropological collections and rare documents about the human race.