Salle de la rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain-des-Prés

[2] Since 1680 the Comédie-Française had been performing in their first theatre, the Hôtel Guénégaud, but because of its proximity to the newly constructed Collège des Quatre-Nations, the company was asked by the school's leaders to move further away to minimise the bad influence of the actors on the students of the college.

[1][7] D'Orbay fit the theatre into a constricted site that was an irregular quadrilateral with oblique frontage on the rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

[6] The façade of cut stone is shown in an engraving from Blondel's book and in the original plans conserved in the archives of the Comédie-Française.

Le Hongre's sculpture survives, mounted in a similar location on the façade of the current building and declared a monument historique on 29 March 1928.

[9] Below the pediment were the Arms of France sculpted in low relief, and below that, at the level of the main floor, a decorative medallion inscribed with the words "Hotel des Comédiens ordinaires du Roy entretenus par Sa Majesté M.D.C.LXXXVIII [Home of the regular Actors of the King supported by His Majesty 1688]".

Façade of the theatre as depicted in 1752 in Architecture françoise by Jacques-François Blondel
Facade of the current building with the high-relief sculpture of Minerva by Étienne Le Hongre