Colonial School, Paris

It also was a center for research in geography, anthropology, ethnology and other scientific endeavors with a focus on French-administered territories.

Its creation, supported by State Councillor Paul Dislère [fr], was the first successful effort to create a permanent establishment specifically for the training of French civil servants, thus prefiguring both ENA and the French National School for the Judiciary.

[3]: 272 It is a prime exemplar of French colonial Moorish Revival architecture, with inspiration principally from Moroccan architecture, and used to be known colloquially as the "old mosque" since it predated the Grand Mosque of Paris, built in a similar style.

[5][6] The building was successively the seat of ENFOM, IHEOM, and IIAP including after the latter's absorption by ENA in 2002.

On 1 January 2022, ENA was in turn replaced by the Institut national du service public, which kept the Colonial School building as its Paris campus.

Façade of the Colonial School building on avenue de l'Observatoire in Paris
Auguste Pavie (third from left, standing) and Pierre Lefèvre-Pontalis in 1893 with Cambodian interpreters trained at the École coloniale.
Etienne Aymonier, first director of the Colonial School
Léopold Sédar Senghor taught at ENFOM, then IHEOM from 1945 to 1960