Tribunal de commerce de Paris

The Tribunal de commerce de Paris ("Paris commercial courtouse), until 1968 Tribunal de commerce de la Seine, refers both to the tribunal de commerce of Paris, a commercial court, and to the building that hosts it on the Île de la Cité in Paris. Because that building's main entrance is on the , the phrase Quai de la Corse is used as a nickname for the court, not least with reference to its role in corporate insolvencies.

Court

The Tribunal de commerce de Paris traces its roots to the commercial court or , created in 1563 by Chancellor Michel de l'Hôpital. Like other such institutions, it was renamed tribunal de commerce in August 1790 during the French Revolution. Aside from the first few years at , the court was located on next to the Church of Saint Merri from 1570 to 1826. In 1826, it moved to the newly built Palais Brongniart, also home of the Paris Bourse. From 1790 to 1968 it was the , and took its current name with the dismantling of the Seine Department in 1968.

Building

In 1857, the decided the construction of a new building for the Tribunal de Commerce and the ''conseil des prud'hommes'', which later moved to a separate location. Part of the grounds that were reserved for it had been the location of the ancient . Following its demolition in 1791, the church had been replaced by entertainment venues, first the Théâtre de la Cité-Variétés and then the ballroom. That building and nearby houses, in turn, were demolished in 1858 for the complete remodeling of the middle section of the Île de la Cité, a major project of Haussmann's renovation of Paris.

The courthouse building for the Tribunal de Commerce was built between 1859 and 1865 on a design by architect Antoine-Nicolas Bailly, inspired by the Renaissance Palazzo della Loggia in Brescia. It was ceremoniously inaugurated by Napoleon III on , and the court's first hearing was held the next day. In the 1930s, it underwent a remodeling that transformed the atrium's ceiling and lower parts of the northern façade, but has otherwise been largely preserved in its original state.

The main entrance, on the , is decorated with statues of ''Law'' by Élias Robert, ''Justice'' by , ''Firmness'' by , and ''Prudence'' by . Above these is a decorated pediment supported by four figures sculpted by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse. The ornate octagonal dome rises to a height of 45 meters and is the building's most distinctive exterior feature. It is positioned to close the perspective of the Boulevard de Sébastopol, and as a consequence, is not aligned with the center of the building's façade.

The interior is organized around two monumental spaces: to the east, a columned atrium (french: salle des pas-perdus), and to the west, a monumental staircase under the building's dome, entered through a vestibule decorated by a pair of monumental lions sculpted by Pierre Louis Rouillard. The staircase is decorated with colossal statues representing ''Maritime Commerce'', by Henri Chapu; ''Land Commerce'', by Paul Cabet; '' Mechanical Art'', by ; and ''Industrial Art'', by . Above these are 16 caryatids by sculptor , and the dome's ceiling with representations of ''the City of Paris'', ''Arts'', ''the City of Marseille'', ''Grain harvest'', ''the City of Lyon'', ''Industry'', ''the City of Bordeaux'', and ''Grape-harvest'', by Armand Félix Marie Jobbé-Duval. On the first floor, the main hearing room (french: grande salle d'audience) is decorated with busts of the court's founder Michel de l'Hôpital and of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, author of the of 1673, and with historical paintings by Paul-Louis Delance and Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury.

Gallery

File:Charles Marville, Tribunal de Commerce, ca. 1853–70.jpg, View in the mid-1860s, by Charles Marville
File:Paris - Tribunal de Commerce - Salle des pas perdus.JPG, Atrium with bust of Michel de l'Hôpital
File:Paris - Tribunal de Commerce - Escalier.JPG, Monumental staircase
File:Tribunal de commerce de Paris, grande salle d'audiance.JPG,
File:Paris - Tribunal de Commerce - Détail d'un plafond.JPG, , detail of ceiling
File:Tribunal de commerce de Paris, chambre du conseil.JPG,
File:Tribunal de commerce de Paris, bureau du Président.JPG,
File:Paris Tribunal de Commerce 15.JPG, Detail of exterior decoration

See also

* Palais de la Cité
* Paris Police Prefecture

Notes

{{coord missing, France

Courthouses in France
Courts in France
Second Empire architecture
Île de la Cité