Institut de France

The Institut de France has a curved facade topped by a prominent copper dome that sits squarely on the Left Bank of the Seine. Cardinal Mazarin commissioned this building in the seventeenth century to serve as a college for students from provinces recently annexed by France. During the French Revolution, the building housed a prison, then a Committee of Public Safety meeting hall. Today, it serves as the home to France's five national academies, including the storied Academie Francaise.