Hôtel Thellusson

The site you are approaching once held the Hôtel Thellusson, a private mansion so architecturally daring that it became a major curiosity for Parisians when it was completed in 1778. Designed by the visionary architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux for the wealthy widow of a Swiss banker, the building was so heavily visited by admirers that entrance tickets were required to manage the crowds. Its most striking feature was a massive, sunken triumphal arch that served as the entrance on Rue de Provence, designed to look like a ruin emerging from the ground.