The Musée d’Orsay is a museum housed in a grand railway station built in 1900. Home to many sculptures and impressionist paintings, it has become one of Paris’s most popular museums.
At the turn of the twentieth century, two large railway stations were built in Paris: the Gare de Lyon and the Gare d’Orsay. The Gare d’Orsay had the most prominent site, along the Seine opposite the Louvre. The railway station was planned by the Compagnie d’Orléans, who wanted to bring electrified trains right into the heart of Paris.This railway station was built at the site of the Orsay Palace, built in 1810-1838 on the initiative of Napoleon I. The palace was burned down by the Communards in 1871 and eventually demolished in 1898 to make way for the new railway station. The building takes its name from the quay on which it is located, which was named after Charles Boucher d’Orsay, the magistrate who ordered the construction of the quay.