Hôtel de la Marine

The Hôtel de la Marine wears a twin facade of colonnades along the Place de la Concorde, echoing the structure across the street. Ange-Jacques Gabriel designed it as the crown furniture storehouse for the kings of France. During the French Revolution, the royal jewels were stored in the building’s secure rooms. In seventeen ninety-two, thieves slipped through an unguarded window, climbed the exterior columns, and made off with the blue-diamond Sancy and the regalia of the French throne.