Luxembourg: station history
Served by: RER B.
Did you know?
An RER line B station in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. The new terminus of the Sceaux line opened in 1895, after works that began in 1892, at the initiative of the Paris-Orléans company, which wanted to move the terminus away from Denfert-Rochereau. The station is entirely underground: waiting rooms and ticket offices on the ground floor of a building acquired at the corner of boulevard Saint-Michel and rue Gay-Lussac, access corridors to the platforms in the cellars.
Anecdote
The company had not obtained permission to build entrances on the public road or in the Luxembourg garden. In the 2000 renovation, the station was chosen as one of nine emblematic RATP stations, on the theme of the environment, with the subtitle "Sénat". During the accessibility works, passengers were received in a hut in front of the garden railings. Until 2019 it was the only RER B station within Paris that was not accessible to disabled passengers.
Audio guide
The Palais du Luxembourg: A Florentine palace in the heart of Paris
Widow of Henry IV, Marie de Medici dreamed of the Pitti Palace from her childhood. In 1612, she bought the Duke of Luxembourg's hotel, hence the name of the place, and entrusted Salomon de Brosse with a project that lasted from 1615 to 1631. To decorate it, she commissioned Rubens to paint 24 huge canvases about her own life, now at the Louvre. 🎨
But the queen hardly took advantage of it: after the "Day of Dupes" (1630), she was sidelined by her son Louis XIII and died in Cologne in 1642, almost without resources.
The palace then knew other lives: prison under the Terror, where Thomas Paine was locked up, then seat of the Senate since 1799. In 1944, the Luftwaffe set up a headquarters there, a few days before the Liberation of Paris.
⛲ Behind the scenes: the Medici fountain, raised around 1630 in the spirit of the Italian caves, was moved in the 19th century when the Rue de Medici was pierced. In the center, the cyclops Polyphemus overlooks Acis and Galatea, before crushing his rival under a rock. A love drama from Ovid, in the middle of one of the most romantic corners of Paris. 🌿
Around Luxembourg
- Jardin du Luxembourg, 270 m away — A garden begun in 1612 by Marie de' Medici, around a palace she modelled on the Pitti Palace in Florence. It holds a small model of Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty, dating from 1870.
- Palais du Luxembourg, 300 m away — A former royal residence now home to the French Senate.