Hôtel de Condé

The property was first built upon, in a suburban environment beyond the city walls of Philippe Auguste, by Antoine de Corbie, premier président of the Parlement of Paris.

In the reign of Charles IX the property belonged to the naturalized Florentine banker Albert de Gondi, a favourite of the king.

The Hôtel de Condé formed a vast ensemble of structures, with wings separated by narrow interior courtyards, with awkward intrusions and party walls; however, the main corps de logis opened upon an extensive parterre garden in the French manner, separated from the cour d'honneur by a fine wrought-iron railing.

On 26 March 1770, an order in council authorized the execution of the theater project intended for the Comédie-Française, designed by Charles De Wailly and Marie-Joseph Peyre in the terraces of the garden of the hôtel.

Previously, Peyre, in his Oeuvres d'architecture, 1765, illustrated a project, whether executed or not, for a symmetrical staircase in two curving flights placed in the vestibule of the "Hôtel de Condé"; he had exhibited it to the Académie in 1763;[5] it may have been intended for the Prince at the Palais Bourbon.