Musée de la Légion d'honneur

The museum building at night

Statue outside the museum

The Musée national de la Légion d'Honneur et des Ordres de Chevalerie (English: National museum of the Legion of Honour and of orders of chivalry) is a museum of national orders of merit located in the 7th arrondissement in the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur beside the Musée d'Orsay at 2, rue de la Légion-d'Honneur, Paris, France. It is open daily except Monday; admission is free. The nearest métro and RER stations are Musée d'Orsay, Solférino, and Assemblée Nationale.

The museum is housed within the Hôtel de Salm, built in 1782 by architect Pierre Rousseau for Frederick III, Prince of Salm-Kyrburg, burned in 1871 during the Paris Commune, and subsequently restored by subscription of medallists. Since 1804 this building has been the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur, and the seat of France's highest honors: the Légion d'honneur (1802), the Médaille militaire (1852), and the Ordre national du Mérite (1963).

Today's museum was created in 1925. It displays a history of France's honors, medals, decorations, and knightly orders from Louis XI to the present, including Napoleonic souvenirs and more than 300 portraits. A special section is dedicated to foreign orders. Its library and archives contain more than 3,000 works.

See also

• Military awards and decorations of France
• List of museums in Paris

References

• Musée national de la Légion d'Honneur et des Ordres de Chevalerie
• Paris.org entry
• ParisInfo entry
• France Hotel Guide description
• Paris, Petit Futé, 2007, page 144. ISBN 2-7469-1701-7.