Musée de la Légion d'honneur

The Musée national de la Légion d'honneur et des ordres de chevalerie is a French national museum of art and history dedicated to orders of chivalry, orders of merit, decorations, and medals. Located at 2, rue de la Légion d'honneur in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, it is situated within the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur beside the Musée d'Orsay. Inaugurated in 1925, it holds the distinction of being the only museum in the world entirely devoted to phaleristics, the study of orders and decorations. Its collection of approximately 5,000 artifacts spans from the Middle Ages to the present, tracing the history of French and foreign distinctions and the values of honor, merit, and civic duty they represent.

The idea for a permanent presentation of French medals originated after a 1911 exhibition at the Musée des Arts décoratifs titled La Légion d'honneur et les décorations françaises. The project was interrupted by the First World War but came to fruition in its aftermath. General Auguste Dubail, the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour, wished to create a sanctuary honoring the French and foreigners tested by the conflict. He initiated the museum's creation in 1925, funding it through a subscription among legionnaires and military medalists that saw particular success in the United States, notably through successive donations by American business lawyer William Nelson Cromwell. The museum expanded in 1932 to accommodate foreign orders, underwent a complete renovation in 2006, and saw its galleries of the Legion of Honour, the National Order of Merit, and royal orders repurposed with new scenography in 2016 and 2018.

The museum's holdings encompass French and foreign orders, decorations, and medals from the era of the Crusades and King Louis XI to the contemporary Médaille nationale de reconnaissance aux victimes du terrorisme. The collection is built upon the initial funds of the Grand Chancery and deposits from national museums, subsequently enriched by donations from collectors such as Maurice Bucquet, La Tour d'Auvergne Lauragais, and Pierredon, as well as donations from foreign states including Russia and Poland. Significant acquisitions include the decoration case of Cambacérès in 1982 and the collar of the Royal Order of the Two-Siciles belonging to Achille Murat in 2002. Since 2008, the museum has housed the deposit of the Antonio Benedetto Spada collection, arguably the most important private collection of orders and decorations in the world, cementing the institution as an international reference. The museum's library and archives contain more than 3,000 works.

Among the museum's 5,000 objects of art, insignia, paintings, costumes, weapons, and documents, several items stand out. The Grand Collar of Emperor Napoleon I is a fundamental piece, symbolizing the creation of the Legion of Honour in 1802; since the Second Empire, this collar has been the distinctive insignia of the Grand Master of the order, received by the head of state upon taking office. Other notable Napoleonic souvenirs include over 300 portraits and the personal berlin carriage of the Emperor captured at Waterloo in June 1815, which was exhibited in 2012 alongside nearly all the French and foreign orders awarded to Napoleon I. The Mario Spada Room alone contains more than 400 orders and decorations from 122 past or present states across five continents.

The museum is housed in the Hôtel de Salm, a neoclassical palace built in 1782 by architect Pierre Rousseau for Frederick III, Prince of Salm-Kyrburg. The building, classified as a historic monument, features an elegant facade adorned with Corinthian columns and museum halls organized around a grand central staircase bathed in light from a glass roof. Since 1804, the structure has been known as the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur, serving as the seat of France's highest honors. It burned during the Paris Commune in 1871 and was subsequently restored through a subscription of medallists. The museum itself occupies a modern wing built between 1922 and 1925 on the site of the Hôtel de Salm's former stables, facing the parvis of the Musée d'Orsay. After a 2006 renovation, the museum occupies the entirety of this dedicated east wing.

The museum is located at 2, rue de la Légion d'honneur, 75007 Paris, directly across from the Musée d'Orsay. It is open Wednesday through Sunday from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM, with late hours on Thursdays until 8:00 PM, and admission is free for all visitors. The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, as well as on January 1, May 1, November 1, and December 25. Access is available via Metro line 12 at Solférino, RER C at Musée d'Orsay, and several bus lines including 24, 63, 68, 69, 73, 83, 84, and 94. Visitors with reduced mobility can access the site by checking in with reception staff. The museum holds the official Musée de France designation, granted on January 5, 2002, and offers permanent self-guided visits as well as guided tours in French, English, Spanish, and Italian.