The Palais Rohan (Rohan Palace) in Strasbourg is the former residence of the prince-bishops and cardinals of the House of Rohan, an ancient French noble family originally from Brittany. It is a major architectural, historical, and cultural landmark in the city.It was built next to Strasbourg Cathedral in the 1730s, from designs by Robert de Cotte, and is considered a masterpiece of French Baroque architecture.Since its completion in 1742, the palace has hosted a number of French monarchs such as Louis XV, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon and Joséphine, and Charles X.
Reflecting the history of Strasbourg and of France, the palace has been owned successively by the nobility, the municipality, the monarchy, the state, the university, and the municipality again. Its architectural conception and its iconography were intended to indicate the return of Roman Catholicism to the city, which had been dominated by Protestantism for the previous two centuries. Thus the prelate's apartments face the cathedral, to the north, and many of the statues, reliefs and paintings reflect the Catholic dogma.
Since the end of the 19th century the palace has been home to three of Strasbourg's most important museums: the Archaeological Museum (Musée archéologique, basement), the Museum of Decorative Arts (Musée des arts décoratifs, ground floor) and the Museum of Fine Arts (Musée des beaux-arts, first and second floor). The municipal art gallery, Galerie Robert Heitz, in a lateral wing of the palace, is used for temporary exhibitions. The Palais Rohan has been listed since 1920 as a Monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.
The palace is structured around a large and paved courtyard. It has a trapezoidal plan, and the land falls away toward the river Ill.To compensate for the slope, the riverside (southern) façade of the main wing has four floors (including the Mansard roof), while the courtyard (northern) façade has three floors. The half-buried floor corresponds to the basement and now houses the archaeological museum (see below, Museums). The riverside façade is thus both the highest and the widest of the palace. The terrace before it, facing the quai des Bateliers, is closed at both ends by elaborate wrought-iron gates adorned with the coat of arms of the House of Rohan.
The riverside façade is formed by the main residential bulk and the library wing on the west side, which offers a contrast in shape and design, notably through its single, very large window. The main part of the façade is symmetrically arranged around an avant-corps of four columns with Corinthian capitals. The avant-corps is crowned with a voluminous triangular pediment, again adorned with the coat of arms of the House of Rohan, while the library wing is crowned with a semicircular pediment. That pediment was originally surmounted by two copper statues of angels, now lost.The library wing was not part of the original 1727 plan but was conceived in 1733, after the cardinal bought up and demolished a row of houses on the current rue de Rohan. The architect, Robert de Cotte, was thus able to distribute the interior spaces of the residential bulk on an even grander and also more practical plan, notably putting the main staircase to the left (east) of the apartment wing instead of the centre.
The courtyard façade of the main wing, in the same classical style as its counterpart facing the Ill,is narrower. A strong emphasis is put on the verticality of the windows, by which means the impression of height is accentuated. Again, a central avant-corps is crowned with a triangular pediment bearing reliefs and in this case also statues. Both façades are richly decorated with allegorical mascarons (depicting seasons, temperaments, continents and elements), eighteen in all on the riverside façade and nine in all on the courtyard façade, to which the riverside façade adds a pair of broad wrought-iron balconies. Due to the difference in width and the trapezoidal plan, the centres of the façades are not aligned.
The courtyard is divided in three sections separated by a row of arches. The left section (as seen from the cathedral) belongs to the Communs wing, which housed the servants. The right section belongs to the stables wing. Left and right of the façade are exedras decorated with busts of Roman emperors. The entrance to the palace is through the left exedra. Facing the courtyard façade is a peristyle with five arches. The central arch, the highest and widest, faces the centre of the façade and opens on the palace's main gate.
The front of the palace on Place du Château (called Place de l'Évêché between 1740 and 1793), designed in a more Baroque style than the rest of the palace, is wide and curved. The central gate is framed by two pairs of columns and juts out in the shape of a Triumphal arch. The upper part of the front section is crowned with statues representing allegories of faith such as "Religion" and "Eucharist", and personifications of Christian virtues such as "Mercy" and "Penance". Plaster casts of some of these statues are displayed in the lapidarium inside the Barrage Vauban. The wooden portal (oak) and the walls east and west of the gate are decorated with trophies and heraldic symbols relating to the House of Rohan and the episcopal polity. The two pavilions connecting the Communs and the stable wings with the gate section are decorated with sixteen mascarons representing male and female Old Testament prophets, and with crescent-shaped pediments, in contrast to the triangular pediments of the façades. The east (left) pavilion housed the palace's kitchens while the west (right) pavilion housed the offices of the ecclesiastical court.
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