00:00A site marked by history, from the Palais d'Orsay to the tragedy of 1871.
00:04Before becoming the railway and cultural hub we know today,
00:07the land located on the banks of the Seine, in what is now the 7th arrondissement of Paris,
00:11housed the Palais d'Orsay.
00:13Built from 1810 onwards, this prestigious official building housed the Council of State and then the Court of Auditors.
00:19However, this institutional group met a tragic end in May 1871.
00:24It was completely burned down during the events of the Paris Commune.
00:27The charred ruins of the Palace remained abandoned for nearly 30 years.
00:31forming a wasteland in the heart of the capital,
00:33until the prospect of the 1900 World's Fair also offered a second life.
00:38The birth of a modern and monumental train station, 1900,
00:41at the end of the 19th century, the Paris to Orléans Railway Company
00:45seeks to bring its travelers closer to the center of Paris,
00:47Paris-Austerlitz station being considered too far out of the way.
00:50The company acquires the land on the Quai d'Orsay
00:52and entrusted the creation of the new station to the architect Victor Laloux,
00:56first Grand Prix of Rome.
00:57Inaugurated on July 14, 1900 for the Universal Exhibition,
01:01The building is a masterpiece of architectural compromise.
01:04Laloux conceals a bold and immense metal-framed glass roof
01:06behind a majestic facade of richly ornamented stone,
01:09in order to integrate the building into the elegant landscape of the Seine riverbanks
01:12and the neighboring Palais Bourbon.
01:14To prevent soot and smoke from forming under the decorated coffers of the Great Nave,
01:17The station is innovating by exclusively adopting electric traction.
01:20Steam locomotives coming from the southwest of Etel to Austerlitz,
01:24leaving the baton to electric machines for the last few kilometers.
01:27The decline of the railways and the transition period, 1939 to 1970,
01:32despite its architectural and technical brilliance,
01:34Orsay station quickly fell victim to the modernization of transport.
01:38By 1939, the length of these quays had proven insufficient.
01:41to accommodate increasingly longer mainline trains.
01:44Intercity train traffic is now permanently redirected to Austerlitz station.
01:48and the Orsay station sees its role confined to serving only the suburbs.
01:52For several decades, this monumental space fell into a semi-dormant state.
01:55and serves various temporary purposes.
01:57It became a parcel sorting center for soldiers in 1940.
02:01then a reception point for prisoners of war repatriated from Germany in 1945.
02:06Later, it housed the fleas from the "Emmaus" operation.
02:09Launched by Abbé Pierre, it serves as a film set.
02:12particularly for the Orson Welles trial,
02:14and even hosts the theatre of worlds by the Renault-Barreau company under its vaults.
02:18The threat of demolition is the museum's plan.
02:20During the 1960s, the building nearly disappeared.
02:24Several urban development projects foresee its outright demolition.
02:27to make way for large glass hotel complexes,
02:30to apartment building bars or a modern tower block.
02:32Thanks to the mobilization of heritage enthusiasts and cultural stakeholders,
02:36The station was saved from destruction and listed as a historical monument in 1973.
02:41then classified in 1978.
02:43In the wake of this, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing initiated a major cultural project.
02:48Transform the disused building into a museum dedicated to artistic creation
02:51from the second half of the 19th century, 1848 to 1914,
02:56thus creating a direct link between the collections of the Louvre Museum and those of the future Pompidou Centre.
03:00The double metamorphosis, RER C and Musée d'Orsay.
03:04The late 1970s and 1980s solidified the site's dual modern purpose.
03:10On the railway front, the construction of a tunnel linking Orsay to the Invalides station was completed in 1979.
03:16The number of tracks is reduced to 4 and the railway station is permanently buried underground.
03:20to become an underground station of the RER C network on the surface.
03:23The architectural transformation is entrusted to the Act Architecture team as well as the Italian designer Gaë Olenti.
03:29Inaugurated in 1986 under the presidency of François Mitterrand,
03:33The Musée d'Orsay is redesigning its monumental nave to exhibit Impressionist paintings.
03:37sculpture, architecture and decorative art.
03:40In homage to the initiative of President Giscard d'Estaing, who passed away in 2020,
03:44The train station and associated cultural institutions now bear his name, which can be affixed to a sticker.
03:48under the official name of the Orsay Museum station, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
