The oldest active astronomical observatory
When entering the Perrault building, with its architecture dating from 1667, the visitor accesses, at the heart of the capital, to one of the most venerable French scientific institutions. Funded by Colbert (the famous minister of the sun king), the Observatory of Paris is since more than three centuries the living proof of major astronomical discoveries.
Its geographical location defined the axe of the First Meridien until 1911, date when the actual Greenwich Meridien replaced the famous “Paris Meridien”. With its façades oriented facing the four cardinal points, it’s the oldest active astronomical observatory in the world
The first speaking clock
The route takes the visitor to all the floors of the Perrault building. We discover:
- At the ground floor, the clock room, where we can see, notably, the first speaking clock that was created by E. Esclangon in 1933.
- On the first floor, the great gallery where we can admire some of the masterpieces of the instrumental collection of the Observatory, as well as the Council room decorated with portraits of Directors of the Observatory of Paris.
- On the second floor, the Cassini room, traversed on a north-south axe by the meridian of Paris, which is materialized with a brass cord.
- On the upper terrace, the Arago dome of the XIX century and its astronomical telescope.
The visit continues in the gardens, where two other buildings shelter an equatorial telescope, the other one a meridian telescope, both of them date from the XIX century.
