Archbishop's Palace of Paris

The Archbishop's Palace of Paris on the Ile de la Cite was once a sprawling complex of medieval buildings clustered against the southern side of Notre Dame Cathedral. Its stone walls were thick and its gardens reached all the way to the Seine. In eighteen thirty-one, an angry mob protesting the Bourbon Restoration stormed the palace. They tossed nearly the entire contents of the archbishop's library into the river, destroying centuries of irreplaceable theological manuscripts and records before fire consumed the structure itself.