Description
The Hôtel Gaillard is a neo-Renaissance mansion on Place du Général-Catroux, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, that looks like a Loire Valley château dropped into the city. Since 2019 it has housed Citéco, the Bank of France's museum of economics and money.
The main thing to see is the building itself: a façade inspired by the Château de Blois and the Château de Gien, designed by Jules Février between 1878 and 1882. Inside, the museum sets out to explain the economy to the public, in rooms that include the mansion's old ballroom.
The house was built for the banker Émile Gaillard, Victor Hugo's banker and a former pupil of Chopin, to hold his collection of medieval and Renaissance art. In 1885 he threw a costume ball for more than 2,000 guests, greeting them dressed as King Henry II.
After his death the collection was sold, and in 1919 the Bank of France bought the mansion as a branch office.
The main thing to see is the building itself: a façade inspired by the Château de Blois and the Château de Gien, designed by Jules Février between 1878 and 1882. Inside, the museum sets out to explain the economy to the public, in rooms that include the mansion's old ballroom.
The house was built for the banker Émile Gaillard, Victor Hugo's banker and a former pupil of Chopin, to hold his collection of medieval and Renaissance art. In 1885 he threw a costume ball for more than 2,000 guests, greeting them dressed as King Henry II.
After his death the collection was sold, and in 1919 the Bank of France bought the mansion as a branch office.