Universal exhibitions – an architectural playground

Exposition universelle de 1900, palais de l'Electricité, château d'eau et palais de la Mécanique et des Industries chimiques, en 1898
Musée d'Orsay
© Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt
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Architects discovered a true playground for their activities at the five universal exhibitions held in Paris between 1855 and 1900. In response to the challenge issued in 1851 by Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace constructed in Hyde Park in central London, Napoleon III was keen to showcase the prestige of his new imperial regime in 1855 via the exhibition organised in Paris.
For subsequent exhibitions, palaces were created in a variety of styles, along with stations and spectacular structures which were usually temporary. Of the projects presented here, only the Eiffel Tower, built for the exhibition of 1889, still stands in the Paris urban landscape as the quintessential symbol of the French capital.
Exposition universelle de 1900, palais de l'Electricité, château d'eau et palais de la Mécanique et des Industries chimiques, en 1898
Musée d'Orsay
© Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt
See the notice of the artwork
Presented on the ground floor, back of the nave, in the new space "Paris, the capital of a modern nation"
The exhibition is now over.
See the whole program