(ANSA) - PARIS, JUN 10 - Emmanuel Macron today inaugurated the Hotel de la Marine, an emblematic building on the Place de laConcorde in Paris, which from Saturday will open its doors to visitors for the first time since the French Revolution after having been the subject of a profound work of restoration that lasted five years.
The Hotel de la Marine, with its "centuries of history", will become a "new place of attraction for France", said the head of state, after visiting the gold-laden salons, some of which recall the castle of Versailles . A restoration conducted by the Center des monumentsnationaux (CMN), which has "managed to reinvent this place", "rediscovering the spirit"; "modernizing it", also thanks to the French "savoir-faire", in particular, the "companions and craftsmen we so much need", even if some of the paintings on display have returned to their former glory thanks to the work of Italian restorers, among the great excellences of our country , highly appreciated in France.
Built in the 18th century by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, first architect of Louis XV, the Hotel de la Marine was undergoing restoration since 2017. The project was designed to be "open to the city", with a restaurant, café, bookshop and 6,000 square meters of co-working spaces. The building houses, among other things, the headquarters of the Foundation for the Memory of Slavery, chaired by the former premier Jean-Marc Ayrault as well as the Paris antenna of Fifa. At the end of the visit, Macron met the president, Gianni Infantino. (HANDLE).