Hôtel de Villeroy (Paris, 7th arrondissement)

The Hôtel de Villeroy features a high, stone carriage gate topped by a sculpted pediment, separating the quiet courtyard from the bustle of the Rue de Bellechasse. Built in seventeen twenty-four for a member of the Villeroy family, the mansion later housed the Ministry of Agriculture. Inside, the walls hold records of shifting power, but in eighteen seventy-eight, the building suffered a fire that gutted much of the interior. Workers reconstructed the rooms to mirror the original eighteenth-century floor plans exactly.