Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine

Updated on September 30, 2026

Housed in the Paris wing of the Palais de Chaillot, facing the Eiffel Tower, the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine is home to the Museum of French Monuments. It grew out of the Museum of Comparative Sculpture conceived by Viollet-le-Duc and opened in 1882: full-size casts of portals, capitals and tombs, from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, let you compare buildings scattered across France within a few steps. The route continues with copies of mural paintings and stained glass, then a gallery of modern and contemporary architecture full of models. The ticket also covers the temporary exhibitions, on place du Trocadéro in the 16th arrondissement.

Highlights

The gallery of casts

Beneath large bay windows, the casts bring together Romanesque and Gothic art at full scale. Do not miss the south portal of Moissac Abbey, on the ground floor, and the portal of the Basilica of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Vézelay, a cast almost ten metres high made in 1881 for the museum’s opening.

The courtyard of the Hôtel de Bernuy

This cast reproduces the courtyard of a sixteenth-century Toulouse mansion, with its arcades, balustrades and carved medallions. It illustrates the early Renaissance in France and shows how Italian ornament spread into civil architecture.

Infos pratiques

Tips

Prices checked in September 2026: €13 full price and €10 reduced (including 18-25-year-olds from outside the European Union and large families), museum and temporary exhibitions included. Admission is free for under-18s, 18-25-year-olds from the European Union, Paris Museum Pass holders, and for everyone on the first Sunday of the month. The upper level of the gallery of mural paintings and stained glass is closed for works, and some lifts are out of service. The ticket office closes 40 minutes before closing time.

How to get there

Metro Trocadéro, lines 6 and 9; Iéna, line 9. Buses 22, 30, 32 and 63, Trocadéro stop; bus 82, Iéna stop. Address: 1 place du Trocadéro-et-du-11-Novembre, 75116 Paris.

Opening hours

Idéal : Weekday opening or Thursday evening

Tuesday Closed

Monday, Wednesday-Sunday 11:00-19:00 (late opening on Thursdays until 21:00; ticket office closes at 18:20, 20:20 on Thursdays; closed on 1 January, 1 May, 14 July and 25 December; closes at 17:00 on 24 and 31 December)