Palais Royal: Overall view, central and flanking wings and court

Originally, the Palais Cardinal was the residence of Cardinal Richelieu, who had hired the architect Jacques Lemercier to design it (completed 1629). It was burnt down in 1763, and, apart from the vestige of a fa\u00E7ade with high-relief sculpture, nothing of Lemercier's work there survives. Palais-Royal was the principal residence of the House of Orleans. Louis Philippe II (1725-1785), who controlled the Palais-Royal from 1780 onward, expanded and redesigned the complex of buildings (including the Com\u00E9die-Fran\u00E7aise) and the gardens (1781-1784). In 1784, the gardens and surrounding structures of the Palais-Royal opened to the public as a shopping and entertainment complex. Today it houses the Conseil d'\u00C9tat, the Constitutional Council, and the Ministry of Culture. At the rear of the garden are the older buildings of the Biblioth\u00E8que nationale de France.