Garden of the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild

The garden you are approaching occupies a portion of the historic Folie Beaujon estate. Baroness Adèle de Rothschild purchased this land in the late nineteenth century to construct her private mansion and created an expansive, secluded parkland for her residence. She eventually enlarged the grounds by acquiring an adjacent property that had once belonged to the writer Honoré de Balzac. After she discovered that a chapel on the grounds was reportedly being used for occult rituals, the Baroness ordered the building to be razed, choosing instead to replace it with a rotunda dedicated to Balzac's memory. You can still spot ancient stone columns in the garden today that serve as the last physical remnants of the original Beaujon estate chapel.