Institut de France

The Institut de France is defined by its dramatic, curved facade and the central dome that rises above the Left Bank of the Seine. Built in the seventeenth century as the Collège des Quatre-Nations, the palace was funded by a massive bequest from Cardinal Mazarin, who intended it as a school for students from four territories newly annexed to France. Architect Louis Le Vau designed the building to complement the Louvre directly across the river, even including a chapel beneath the dome to serve as the Cardinal's own tomb.