The library of the National Assembly will soon open to the public after a year of catering

Under the ORS of the Republic, 700,000 works. Bulletins of laws, collections of judgment of the Council of State but also the founding texts of our democracy. The “Oath of the Jeu de Paume” which signed the beginning of the Revolution of 1789, the manuscript of “La Marseillaise” written by the hand of Rouget de Lisle in 1792 or even “the encyclopedia” of Diderot and the manuscript of the “confessions” of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, gathered in the same place: the library of the National Assembly in Paris (VII).

This splendid place will reopen on April 10 after a year of a large renovation project, reports BFM Paris. For the first time, the library will be open to the public. It was previously reserved for parliamentarians, as prescribed by the law of March 4, 1796: deputies and senators, then European elected officials and their collaborators. Only researchers were authorized to make up for the 700,000 books in the heritage fund, on request.

Eighteen kilometers of shelving

The work, the first in the history of the library, made it possible to restore in particular the ceilings painted by Eugène Delacroix. Nicknamed his “Sistine Chapel” by the romantic painter, the Library of the Palais-Bourbon officially created in 1796 had been the subject of an alarming diagnosis concerning the state of the paintings in 2019.

The work that started in December 2023 also enabled an overall renovation: removal of the carpets to find the original parquet floors in the Hungarian point, upgrading to thermal standards, etc.

The 42 -meter long and 15 meter -high room, 18 km of shelving organized on two floors. There are mainly works of law, political science, history, economics and social sciences as well as university theses in the same fields. It also has an exceptional ancient fund rich in around 1900 manuscripts, 80 incunable and many rare and original editions. Like for example an ninth century Bible or the “minutes” of the trial of Joan of Arc.