Paris Observatory

The Paris Observatory is a seventeenth-century stone structure easily identified by its symmetrical, block-like design and the octagonal towers that flank its southern facade. Founded in sixteen sixty-seven under the reign of King Louis the Fourteenth, it stands as the oldest astronomical observatory in the world still in operation. The building was designed by architect Claude Perrault to align precisely with the cardinal points, with its central axis bisected by the historic Paris meridian.