Avenue d'Iéna
Encyclopedia
The Avenue d'Iéna is a tree-lined avenue in the XVIe arrondissement
of Paris
, running from the Trocadéro
(Avenue Albert De Mun) to the Place de l'Étoile
. Passing through Place d'Iéna, Place de l'Amiral de Grasse, Place de l'Uruguay and Place Richard de Coudenhove Kalergi on the way. It is named from the neighbouring bridge across the Seine
, the Pont d'Iéna
(itself named after the Battle of Iena). It has a length of some 1150 m and an average width of some 35 m.
The avenue is intersected by:
The closest metro stations are:
The rue des Batailles had been a street in the village of Chaillot, engulfed by the expanding Paris in 1786. For some years afterwards, two town boundaries of Chaillot could be seen at the wall of sieur Lélu and the house of sieur Jamard. The street housed several hospitals and a private lunatic asylum was set up in the house once occupied by the Chevalier Pierre Bayard du Terrail. The chemist Charles Derosne (1779 – 1846), worked in 7 rue des Batailles at the extraction of sugar from sugarbeet.
On December 20, 1961 the name Place de l'Uruguay was given to the intersection of the streets Rue Galilée and Jean Giraudoux with the avenue.
XVIe arrondissement
The 16th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of Paris, the capital city of France...
of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, running from the Trocadéro
Trocadéro
The Trocadéro, , site of the Palais de Chaillot, , is an area of Paris, France, in the 16th arrondissement, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. The hill of the Trocadéro is the hill of Chaillot, a former village.- Origin of the name :...
(Avenue Albert De Mun) to the Place de l'Étoile
Place de l'Étoile
The Place Charles de Gaulle, , historically known as the Place de l'Étoile , is a large road junction in Paris, France, the meeting point of twelve straight avenues including the Champs-Élysées which continues to the east. It was renamed in 1970 following the death of General and President Charles...
. Passing through Place d'Iéna, Place de l'Amiral de Grasse, Place de l'Uruguay and Place Richard de Coudenhove Kalergi on the way. It is named from the neighbouring bridge across the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
, the Pont d'Iéna
Pont d'Iéna
Pont d'Iéna is a bridge spanning the River Seine in Paris. It links the Eiffel Tower on the Left Bank to the district of Trocadéro on the Right Bank.-History:...
(itself named after the Battle of Iena). It has a length of some 1150 m and an average width of some 35 m.
The avenue is intersected by:
- At the Place d'Iéna: Avenue du Président Wilson, Rue de Longchamp, Rue Boissière, Avenue Pierre 1èr de Serbie;
- At the Place de l'Amiral de Grasse: Rue de Lubeck, Place des États-UnisPlace des États-UnisThe Place des États-Unis is a public space in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France, about 500 m south of the Place de l'Etoile and the Arc de Triomphe....
/Square Thomas Jefferson, Rue de Bassano, Rue Georges Bizet, Rue Freycinet; - At the Place de l'Uruguay: Rue Galilée, Rue Jean Giraudoux;
- At the Place Richard de Coudenhove Kalergi: Rue Auguste Vacquerie, Rue Jean GiraudouxJean GiraudouxHippolyte Jean Giraudoux was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy...
; - Rue Newton;
- Rue Dumont d'Urville;
- Rue De la Perouse;
- Rue De Presbourg.
The closest metro stations are:
- IénaIéna (Paris Metro)Iéna is a station on line 9 of the Paris Métro, named after the Avenue d'Iéna. The station opened on 27 May 1923 with the extension of the line from Trocadéro to Saint-Augustin. Iéna is the French name of Jena where the Napoleon's army beat Prussia in 1806 at the Battle of Jena.Nearby are the...
near the southern end of the Place d'Iéna. - Charles de Gaulle - ÉtoileCharles de Gaulle - Étoile (Paris Metro and RER)Charles de Gaulle – Étoile is a station on Paris Métro Line 1 and of the RER urban rail network. It lies on the boundary of the VIIIe and XVIIe arrondissements of Paris...
at the northern end of the Place Charles de Gaulle - Étoile.
History
On the March 2, 1864, the Avenue d'Iéna replaced the former rue des Batailles, which ran between the avenue Albert De Mun and the Place d'Iéna.The rue des Batailles had been a street in the village of Chaillot, engulfed by the expanding Paris in 1786. For some years afterwards, two town boundaries of Chaillot could be seen at the wall of sieur Lélu and the house of sieur Jamard. The street housed several hospitals and a private lunatic asylum was set up in the house once occupied by the Chevalier Pierre Bayard du Terrail. The chemist Charles Derosne (1779 – 1846), worked in 7 rue des Batailles at the extraction of sugar from sugarbeet.
On December 20, 1961 the name Place de l'Uruguay was given to the intersection of the streets Rue Galilée and Jean Giraudoux with the avenue.
Composition
- n° 1 : Palais d'Iéna, a classified monument partly constructed by Auguste PerretAuguste PerretAuguste Perret was a French architect and a world leader and specialist in reinforced concrete construction. In 2005 his post-WWII reconstruction of Le Havre was declared by UNESCO one of the World Heritage Sites....
including a rotunda. - n° 2 (corner of the avenue d'Iéna and the avenue Albert-de-Mun): Site where the mansion of politician Daniel Wilson was erected. It then became then the private residence of the ambassador of the United States. This was subsequently demolished, giving place to a modern building, leaving only the enclosing wall surmounted by grilles. This building is currently the Cultural Centre of the Korean Embassy (in French and Korean).
- n° 4: Hôtel de Cambacérès I retain a very exact memory , wrote André Becq de Fouquières, of the balls held in this beautiful residence during the spring of 1913 and I still see the Count of Jarnac, the host's uncle, receiving the masked ladies, in their periwinkle-coloured dominos, handing their personal invitation cards to him and dissimulating anonymity under velvet and silk. On the terrace, the countess Stanislas de Montebello helped her brother do the honors for the evening. There was all the nobility of France, many diplomats; and I remember that this night I saw for the last time before the war, in which they were to play such a part, the princes Sixte and Xavier of Bourbon-Parma. (Mon Paris et ses Parisiens, 1953, p. 144). This building is currently the Iranian Embassy.
- n° 8: Ex mansion of the Philippe family. It also was the Paris residence of the baron Philippe de Rothschild who used to rent the first floor. It is now part of the The Shangri-La Hotel.
- n° 10: Mansion of Prince Roland BonaparteRoland BonaparteRoland Bonaparte, 6th Prince of Canino and Musignano was a French prince and president of the Société de Géographie from 1910 until his death.-Biography:...
. Sir Charles Mendl and Lady MendlElsie de Wolfe]Elsie de Wolfe was an American actress, interior decorator, nominal author of the influential 1913 book The House in Good Taste, and a prominent figure in New York, Paris, and London society...
occupied an apartment there. The painter Jean-Gabriel DomergueJean-Gabriel DomergueJean-Gabriel Domergue was a French painter specialising in portraits of Parisian women.- Biography :Domergue was born on March 4, 1889 in Bordeaux and studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. From the 1920s onward he concentrated on portraits, and claimed to be "the inventor of...
had his studio here. This is probably the site No. 12, rue des Batailles in which Balzac had a flat in 1834. Today this building is the head office of UbifranceUbifranceUbifrance is the French agency for export promotion. It succeeds "Centre Français du commerce extérieur".Its headquarters is on Boulevard Saint-Jacques, 13th arrondissement of Paris. UBIFrance has 66 economic missions in 46 countries and more than 1,400 employees in France and abroad responsible...
, the French agency for the international development of companies. The mansion is now under reconstruction and will reopen in early 2009 as a luxury five-star hotel: The Shangri-La Hotel, Palais D'Iena, Paris. - n° 11: A building on the site of the mansion of Charles EphrussiCharles EphrussiCharles Ephrussi was a Russian critic, art historian, and art collector. He also was a part-owner and then editor as well as a contributor to the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, the most important art historical periodical in France...
. - n° 17: Houses the German Goethe Institute (in French and German).
- n° 19: A private mansion built in 1913, in the neo-classic style, by René SergentRené SergentRené Sergent was a noted French architect.-Biography:Sergent was trained at the École spéciale d'architecture, where he concentrated on French architecture of the 18th century but also studied British contemporaries such as Robert Adam, then entered the architectural office of Ernest Sanson where...
for Alfred Heidelbach which currently houses the galleries of the Japanese and Chinese Panthéon BouddhiquePanthéon BouddhiqueThe Panthéon Bouddhique, also known as the Galeries du Panthéon Bouddhique or the Galerie du Pantheon Bouddhique du Japon et de la Chine, is a museum of Japanese and Chinese art works...
of the Guimet MuseumGuimet MuseumThe Guimet Museum is a museum of Asian art located at 6, place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France...
. - n° 30: Houses the Union Équestre d'Île de France, the equestrian union. Also in the building are Fédération Internationale de Tourisme Équestre, Fédération Française d'Équitation (FFE), Délégation Nationale au Tourisme Équestre (DNTE) and Ligue Française pour la Protection du Cheval et du Poney
- n° 38: An interesting mansion in the Renaissance style built for the politician George Cochery, erected by the architect Charles LetrosneCharles LetrosneCharles Letrosne was a French architect and writer known as the author of the influential three-volume Murs et toits pour le pays de chez nous in 1923, as the co-designer of the zoo in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris in 1934, and as the first chief architect of the Paris World Exhibition of 1937....
and transformed into a residential building. - n° 40: Is the Centre Félix-Grat one of the centres of the IRHT (Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes) the French research centre for texts, a branch of the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique). It has been closed since October 2004 and is expected to reopen in early 2006.
- n° 49: A private mansion constructed in 1897 by Ernest SansonErnest SansonPaul Ernest Sanson was a French architect trained in the Beaux-Arts manner.Sanson entered the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris at the age of eighteen, and followed the courses offered by Émile Gilbert...
for Maurice Kann on the site of a stone-built house which belonged to the Doctor Samuel Jean de PozziSamuel Jean de PozziSamuel-Jean Pozzi was a French surgeon and gynecologist. He was also interested in anthropology and neurology.-Life:Samuel-Jean Pozzy was born in Bergerac, Dordogne to a family of Italian/Swiss descent. His father, Benjamin Dominique Pozzy, was a minister of the Reformed Church of France...
. The building remains to this day, though divided among several companies. - n° 50: This building is currently the Embassy of the Sultanate of Oman.
- n° 51: A private mansion constructed in 1897 by Ernest SansonErnest SansonPaul Ernest Sanson was a French architect trained in the Beaux-Arts manner.Sanson entered the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris at the age of eighteen, and followed the courses offered by Émile Gilbert...
for Rodolphe Kann, transformed for the businessman Calouste GulbenkianCalouste GulbenkianCalouste Sarkis Gulbenkian was an Armenian businessman and philanthropist. He played a major role in making the petroleum reserves of the Middle East available to Western development...
by the architect Emmanuel PontremoliEmmanuel PontremoliEmmanuel Pontremoli was a French architect and archaeologist. Born in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, a student in the atelier of Louis-Jules André, in 1890 he won the Prix de Rome in the architecture category and in 1922 became a member of the Académie des Beaux Arts...
and the firm of Mewes and DavisArthur Joseph DavisArthur Joseph Davis was a British architect. Davis studied at the Paris École des Beaux-Arts in the 1890s. He was the co-partner in the firm Mewes & Davis, with Charles Mewès. The firm designed the elevations and interior decoration of the London Ritz Hotel which introduced modern French comfort...
. It houses the Portuguese Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian (in French). - n° 56: Mansion of Rochefoucauld (corner of the avenue d'Iéna and the Rue Georges Bizet): This building is currently the Egyptian Embassy.
Fiction
- Christopher Newman in The American by Henry JamesHenry JamesHenry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
dined with Mr. and Mrs. Tristram at their apartment on the avenue. - In the James BondJames BondJames Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
book, Thunderball, commenting on the wealth of the street Ian FlemingIan FlemingIan Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
writes that too many of the landlords and tenants in the Avenue d'Iéna have names ending in 'esou,' 'ovitch,' 'ski,' and 'stein'.