Information > History of Meudon Campus

THE PARIS OBSERVATORY AT MEUDON :

A BRIEF HISTORY

At present the Observatoire de Paris owns three campuses: Paris, Meudon and the radioastronomy station at Nançay. More than 700 scientists, technicians and administrative staff work there.

The history of the present Meudon Castle (Château de Meudon) starts several centuries ago.

The new Château de Meudon over where the cupola of the Meudon Observatory is installed was built in 1706 by the great architect Jules-Hardouin Mansart in orders by King Louis XIV for his son the Grand Dauphin. This was the last important project realized by Mansart. The gardens and water fontaines were constructed under the plans by Le Nôtre. Important visitors stayed in the Château de Meudon in the XVIII century as the Zar of Russia Peter the Great and the King of Poland Stanislas Leszczyski.

After the French Revolution, a workshop to construct military balloons was settled in the area. These balloons played an important rôle in the Fleurus battle against Austria in 1794. Napoleon restaured the Château de Meudon and the Empress Marie-Louise and their son (the King of Rome) lived in the Castle.

The terrasse was used by the prussians to shell Paris during the siege of 1870. The Château de Meudon took fire at that time.

In 1876 the astronomer Jules Janssen created the Meudon Observatory and in 1893 a refraction telescope was installed over in the Castle.