Domaine National du Palais-Royal

The Palais-Royal features an interior courtyard filled with two hundred and sixty black and white striped octagonal columns of varying heights. Cardinal Richelieu commissioned the structure in sixteen thirty-three to serve as his private residence. It later became the home of the Orléans family, who opened the gardens to the public in the late eighteenth century. These arcades transformed into a center for gambling, political debate, and revolutionary pamphlets, creating a space where the city gathered to challenge the authority of the throne.