Paris 7e - Hôtel de Monaco - Résidence de l'ambassadeur de Pologne
Paris 7 - Hotel de Monaco - Polish Ambassador's Residence

The Palace was built in 1772 by the notable architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart for Princess of Monaco Marie-Catherine de Brignole. She expressed her wish that the palace be both grander and more elaborate than the nearby Hôtel de Matignon.
She emigrated to England in 1790 and the Palace was seized by the revolutionary government and later passed through a number of hands, including those of the French Marshal Valentinois and a number of ambassadors until finally passing into those of the English banker William Williams-Hope who requested Achille-Jacques Fédel (Brongniart's student) to expand the Palace.
After Hope's death, the Palace finally fell to the Prince of Sagan and for another half century became a place of splendid receptions and glamorous balls. During this period the palace became briefly known as the Hôtel de Sagan.
In 1936 the Hôtel was sold to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for it to be their legation's permanent seat in Paris. Since then the palace has served continuously as the home to the Polish Ambassador and his staff, interrupted only for the duration of the second world war when it became a German cultural office. For a brief period in 1939-1940 it was even the seat of the Polish government-in-exile until the fall of France and the government's flight to the embassy in London.
In December 1832, it's in the Music Room that Frédéric Chopin gave his first concert in Paris. At the end of the XIXth century, the Princess of Sagan organised masqued bals, including the "Bal des animaux" mentioned by Proust in “A la recherche du temps perdu”.