Construction began in 1564, originally to serve as a home for Queen Catherine de' Medici, and it was gradually extended until it closed off the western end of the Louvre courtyard and displayed an immense façade of 266 metres.

The site of the Tuileries Palace was originally just outside the walls of the city, in an area frequently flooded by the Seine as far as the present Rue Saint-Honoré.

She sold the medieval Hôtel des Tournelles, near the Bastille, where her husband had died, and between 1563 and 1568 acquired several pieces of land which she put together for her new residence.

The 1588 outbreak of conflict between Protestants and Catholics in the city abruptly halted the work, and the unprotected site was abandoned and pillaged.

[2] Work did not resume until 1594, when Henry IV made a triumphal return to Paris, and recommenced construction of the Louvre and the Tuileries.

The architects and decorators Etienne Duperac, Louis Metezeau and Jacques II Androuet du Cerceau contributed to the new palace.

It offered a variety of tournaments and competitions, including a contest in which horsemen were asked to spear the cardboard heads of "Saracens" and "Moors", as well as a series of mounted processions around the courtyard, complete with music.

The palace had been rarely used in forty years; it was refurnished and redecorated for the new king, but he remained only until 15 June 1722, when he moved to Versailles, three months before his coronation.

[9] On 1 December 1783, the palace garden was the starting point of a major event in aviation history—the first manned flight in a hydrogen balloon, by Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers.

[10] Not long afterwards, on 6 October 1789, Louis XVI and his family were forced to leave Versailles for Paris, moving back into the Tuileries.

[10] On 9 November 1789, the National Constituent Assembly, formerly the Estates General of 1789, moved its meetings from the tennis court at Versailles to the Salle du Manège.

It was also used by the Assembly's successor, the National Convention and, in 1795, the Council of Five Hundred (Conseil des Cinq-Cents) of the Directory until the body moved to the Palais-Bourbon in 1798.

In November 1792, the invaders discovered the armoire de fer, a hiding place at the royal apartments, believed to contain the secret correspondence of Louis XVI with other European monarchs, appealing for help.

The National Convention, meeting in the Manège of the palace, launched the Reign of Terror in 1793–94, leading to the execution of the king and queen, along with thousands of others accused of opposing the Revolution.

He was given a residence in the Waterside Gallery of the Louvre, connected to the Tuileries by a short underground passageway, and his own small pavilion in the courtyard, decorated by Fontaine.

[14] Following the defeat and exile of Napoleon, the gardens became a large camp for Russian and Prussian soldiers, while the kings of France returned to the palace during the Bourbon Restoration.

[15] The private apartment used by Napoleon III, on the ground floor of the palace's southern wing, consisted of "gilt boxes furnished in the style of the First Empire."

Empress Eugénie had her apartment, comprising 8 of the 11 rooms on the bel etage of the southern wing's garden side, above, connected to the Emperor's by a winding staircase.

[16] The little-used northern wing of the palace, which contained the chapel, the Galerie de la Paix, and the Salle de Spectacle, was used only for performances, such as the Daniel Auber cantata performed on the evening of Napoleon and Eugénie's civil wedding ceremony, 29 July 1853, or for important fêtes, such as the party given for sovereigns attending the International Exposition on 10 June 1867.

[18] Between 1864 and 1868, Napoleon III asked that the Pavillon de Flore, now the southernmost pavilion, be redesigned by Hector Lefuel to match his other modifications to the palaces.

The courtyard pediment of the central pavilion can be seen in Paris' Georges Cain square [fr], other pieces are found in the garden of the Palais du Trocadéro, the Louvre and the Museum of Decorative Arts.

[25] In addition, other parts of the palace are located within France in Arcueil, Barentin, Roybet Fould Museum [fr] in Courbevoie, Château de Varax in Marcilly-d'Azergues, Nantes, Saint-Raphaël and Salins, and other countries such as Schwanenwerder in Berlin, Germany, Bordighera in Italy and Palacio de Carondelet in Quito, Ecuador.

[26] The Tuileries Garden (French: Jardin des Tuileries) covers 22.4 hectares (55 acres); is surrounded by the Louvre (to the east), the Seine (to the south), the Place de la Concorde (to the west) and the Rue de Rivoli (to the north); and still closely follows the design laid out by the royal landscape architect André Le Nôtre in 1664.

The Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume is a museum of contemporary art located in the northwest corner of the garden.

[28] His formal garden plan drew out the perspective from the reflecting pools one to the other in an unbroken vista along a central axis from the west palace façade, which has been extended as the Axe historique.

Proponents of the plan noted that much of the original furniture and paintings still existed, put into storage when the Franco-Prussian War began in 1870.

"[21] However, in 2008, Michel Clément, Director of Architecture and Heritage, stated "From our point of view, the reconstruction of the Tuileries Palace is not a priority.