M 'O - Musée d'Orsay (France)

On december 4, 2016, the Railway Heritage World traveled to Paris and made a visite to the Musée d'Orsay, which used to be a railway station and a hotel.

The History

The building, designed by Victor Laloux, was constructed between 1898 and 1900 to be part of the Universal Exhibition of 1900, taking the place of the Audit Office burnt down during the Commune of 1871.

The railway station worked until 1939, when it became inadequate infrastructure to receive the big trains that were being developed. In 1973 the building was almost demolished. Only in 1980 the conversion plan designed by the architects Renaud Bardon, Pierre Colboc and Jean-Paul Philippon of ACT Architecture, started. This was the whole historical information found near by the Museum, inaugurated on december 1º, 1986.

The Building and the exhibition

As it can be seen in the pictures, the existing model inside the museum represents the building in its currently shape. All the divisions make a bit difficult to be sure about the intervations made, but the main structure is obviously of the old railway station. The details are amazing!

The mix between the pantings, sculptures, architecture and decoration art made us spend a whole day without even notice. There are some restaurants inside to make that possible. They are a mix of modernety and preservation.

After this trip surrounded by art the surprise continued. Out of the building, when we were on our way to get the RER C, we found some impressive old images of the railway station, and the infrastructure started to be more clear in our minds. There we realised that the museum is on its 30º birthday! The old images are not fixed installations, so these intervations were probably made to celebrate the museum birthday, but it would be a very nice ideia to keep them in the future. The building is in a constant mutation; even before it became a museum, the infrastructure was used to other things.

The Railway and the City

The railway station was the first modern station built to receive the eletrict train, that is why it was possible to built the station with a glass cover. Besides that, many new technologies, like lifts for bagages and people, were used. The pionering continued when the builting became a museum. It was the first museum to exhibit different kind of art together.

The museum is considered one of the most famous monuments of Paris. The relationship of its volume and the other monuments around was made on purpose. The whole metalic infrastructure of the building was hide by limestone.

Final Considerations

The old railway station receives countless visitors by year attracted by its exhibition. The whole building has an amazing history that should be appreciated too. If you are delighted by this amazing infrastructure, you can check it out on the official website of the museum (http://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/collections/histoire-du-musee/accueil.html).

If you already went to the Musée d'Orsay, share your experience with us too!