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Paris UNESCO world heritage sites

Paris west

Jena Bridge at Pont d'Iena
Pont d'Iena ("Jena Bridge") is a bridge spanning the River Seine in Paris. It links the Eiffel Tower on the Left Bank to the district of Trocadero on the Right Bank.

Eiffel Tower at 5 Avenue Anatole France
Constructed from 1887-89 as the entrance to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticized by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but it has become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world.

Military School at 1 Place Joffre
It was founded in 1750, after the War of the Austrian Succession, by Louis XV on the basis of a proposal of Marshal Maurice de Saxe and with the support of Madame de Pompadour and the financier Joseph Paris Duverney, with the aim of creating an academic college for cadet officers from poor noble families.

Les Invalides on Place des Invalides
Hotel des Invalides, is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose. The buildings house the Musee de l'Armee, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musee des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musee d'Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the Dome des Invalides, a large church with the tombs of some of France's war heroes, most notably Napoleon Bonaparte.

Large Palace at 3 Avenue du General Eisenhower
The building was designed to be a large-scale venue for official artistic events. A pediment on the building refers to this function with an inscription that reads, "a monument dedicated by the Republic to the glory of French art." Designed according to Beaux-Arts tastes, the building features ornate stone facades, glass vaults and period innovations that included iron and light steel framing and reinforced concrete.

Small Palace on Avenue Winston Churchill
Built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle ("universal exhibition"), it now houses the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts (Musee des beaux-arts de la ville de Paris). The Petit Palais is located across from the Grand Palais on Avenue Nicolas II, today Avenue Winston-Churchill.

Concorde Square on Place de la Concorde
Measuring 8.64 hectares (21.3 acres) in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Elysees. It was the site of many notable public executions during the French Revolution.

Voltaire Wharf on Quai Voltaire
In 1791, the wharf became known as the Quai Voltaire in homage to the writer who died in 1778 in the home of Charles, marquis de Villette. After Honore de Balzac set his novel La Peau de chagrin in the Quai Voltaire, antique shops became common in the quai. In the early nineteenth century the area became a well-known place for booksellers to peddle their wares.

Louvre Museum on Rue de Rivoli
Louvre, in full Louvre Museum or French Musée du Louvre, official name Great Louvre or French Grand Louvre, national museum and art gallery of France, housed in part of a large palace in Paris that was built on the right-bank site of the 12th-century fortress of Philip Augustus. It is the world’s most-visited art museum, with a collection that spans work from ancient civilizations to the mid-19th century.

Paris center

Malaquais Wharf on Quai Malaquais
This quay dates from the 16th Century and replaced an embankment whose initial purpose was to protect the Pré aux Clercs (fields) from floods. There are mansions on the quay. Number 5 was the Hôtel de Châteauneuf; 15 is the little Hôtel de Chimay where Anatole France lived in 1844; and number 17 is the Hôtel de Chimay designed by Mansart, whose ceilings are decorated by Le Brun. It is surrounded with gardens by Le Nôtre. At number 13, one can still see the Ecole des Beaux Arts (School of Fine Arts) bookshop. Finally, Anatole France was born at number 19, and George Sand lived there for three years from 1833.

Mint at 11 Quai de Conti
The Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint) is a government-owned institution responsible for producing France's euro coins. Founded in 864 AD, it is the world's oldest continuously-running minting institution operating from two sites, one in Paris and one in Pessac. Administratively speaking, the "Direction of Coins and Medals", the national mint is an administration of the French government charged with issuing coins as well as producing medals and other similar items. Many ancient coins are housed in the collections maintained there.

New Bridge at Pont Neuf
The Pont Neuf is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. It stands by the western (downstream) point of the Ile de la Cite, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BC, the birthplace of Paris, then known as Lutetia, and during the medieval period, the heart of the city.

Holy Chapel at 8 Boulevard du Palais
Along with the Conciergerie, the Sainte-Chapelle is one of the earliest surviving buildings of the Capetian royal palace on the Ile de la Cite. Although damaged during the French Revolution, and restored in the 19th century, it has one of the most extensive 13th-century stained glass collections anywhere in the world.

Notre-Dame Cathedral at 6 Parvis Notre-Dame
The cathedral is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture, and it is among the largest and best-known church buildings in the Catholic Church in France, and in the world. The naturalism of its sculptures and stained glass serve to contrast it with earlier Romanesque architecture.

Saint-Jacques Tower *** on Square de la Tour Saint-Jacques
Throughout the Middle Ages, Santiago de Compostela was a major destination for numerous pilgrims from all over Europe. To reach Spain, the pilgrims had to pass through France. Four symbolic routes depart from Paris, Vezelay, Le Puy and Arles and cross the Pyrenees, joining the numerous itineraries taken by the travellers. Pilgrimage churches, simple sanctuaries, hospitals, bridges, roadside crosses bear witness to the spiritual and physical aspects of the pilgrimages.

Paris east

Hotel Guenegaud at 60 Rue des Archives
At 60, rue des Archives in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, this Hotel de Guenegaud was built between 1651 and 1655 for Jean-Francois de Guenegaud des Brosses, secrétaire du Roi, maitre des Comptes and conseiller d'Etat, by Francois Mansart

Hotel de Soubise at 60 Rue des Francs Bourgeois
The Hotel de Soubise was built for the Prince and Princess de Soubise on the site of a semi-fortified manor house named the Grand-Chantier built in 1375 for connétable Olivier de Clisson, that had formerly been a property of the Templars.

Hotel Carnavalet at 16 Rue des Francs Bourgeois
In 1548, Jacques des Ligneris, President of the Parliament of Paris, ordered the construction of the mansion that came to be known as the Hôtel Carnavalet; construction was completed about 1560. In 1578, the widow of Francois de Kernevenoy, a Breton whose name was rendered in French as Carnavalet, purchased the building. In 1654, the mansion was bought by Claude Boislève, who commissioned the well-known architect, François Mansart, to make extensive renovations. Madame de Sévigné, famous for her letter-writing, lived in the Hôtel Carnavalet from 1677 until her death in 1696.

Place des Vosges on Place des Vosges
The Place des Vosges, inaugurated in 1612 with a grand carrousel to celebrate the engagement of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, is a prototype of the residential squares of European cities that were to come. What was new about the Place Royale in 1612 was that the housefronts were all built to the same design, probably by Jean Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau, of red brick with strips of stone quoins over vaulted arcades that stand on square pillars.

Hotel de Sully at 62 Rue Saint-Antoine
The hotel de Sully was built, with gardens and an orangery, between 1624 and 1630, for the wealthy financier Mesme Gallet. The building is usually attributed to the architect Jean Androuet du Cerceau. The site was chosen to give access to the Place Royale - today the Place des Vosges. The Marais was then an especially fashionable area for the high nobility ; the construction of the hôtel de Sully fits in a larger movement of monumental building in this part of Paris.

Hotel de Beauvais at 68 Rue François Miron
Until 1865 rue Francois-Miron formed part of the historic rue Saint Antoine and as such was part of the ceremonial route into Paris from the east. The Hotel was built by the royal architect Antoine Le Pautre for Catherine Beauvais in 1657. It is an example of eclectic French baroque architecture.

Hotel de Sens at 1 Rue du Figuier
The hotel was built to serve as a residence for the archbishops of Sens. Before 1622, Paris was not a specific archdiocese, and depended on the diocesan authority of Sens. The archbishop was a prominent figure of power, his residence reflecting his influence within the urban landscape.

Saint-Louis Island on Ile Saint-Louis
Both a residential and historical quarter of France’s capital city, this island is home to several flamboyant-fronted hotels overlooking the river Seine. Formerly known as the Ile des Palais because of these very hotels, the perfect architectural cohesion of the island draws in visitors.

Sully Bridge at Pont de Sully
The current bridge was constructed in 1876, as part of Haussmann's renovation of Paris, and opened on 25 August 1877. It is named in honour of Maximilien de Bethune, duke of Sully (1560-1641) and minister to Henry IV.