In the middle of the XIXthcentury, architect Paul Letarouilly designed an extension, intended to become the new entrance to the establishment. It reoriented the Collège de France from today's Place Marcelin-Berthelot towards Rue Saint-Jacques, and continued to welcome the public until 1944.
Two lectures were created, separated by a portico serving the new lectures areas. Work began in 1834 and was completed in 1841. The portico, with its three arcades, was not decorated until the end of the XIXthcentury, in 1891, with a fresco by painters Urbain Bourgeois and Louis Hista, depicting allegorical decor inspired by Pompeian fantasy. Geometric and symmetrical effects, columns, plinths and trompe-l'œil caissons, medallions and garlands : these architectural elements on a white background reflect the ornamental taste of the grotesque frescoes in Rome'sDomus Aurea.
As the Collège de France prepares to celebrate its five hundredth anniversary in 2030, it is initiating a major campaign to conserve and restore its heritage in order to continue to attract researchers from all over the world and welcome an ever-increasing number of visitors. The first step in this restoration campaign concerns the restoration of the Letarouilly portico.
This open-air, freely accessible work is at the heart of the lectures areas in the Collège de France buildings, which are listed as historic monuments.
These decorations form an ensemble of remarkable quality, unique in Paris, which is currently in a deteriorated state of preservation.
The project calls for complete restoration of the painted decorations, including renovation and improved illumination of the structure, verification of the roof's watertightness, and cleaning and consolidation of the exterior masonry.
The restoration of the painted decorations on the portico in the Cour Letarouilly has been made possible thanks to the patronage of the Fondation Clément Fayat and the Jeunes Talents & Patrimoine fund of Crédit agricole d'Île-de-France.
This project benefits from the patronage of the Fondation Clément Fayat and Crédit agricole d'Île-de-France.
