The Jeu de Paume room is located rue du Jeu de paume, in the heart of the Saint-Louis district. It is famous for the oath of the Jeu de Paume which the deputies of the Third Estate lent to it on June 20, 1789.
The Jeu de Paume at Versailles
This room, which was named at the time "tripot", was built by Nicolas Crete in 1686. King Louis XIV, as well as other characters of the Court, played in the game of palm, very popular game At the time and ancestor of the current tennis. Note that there were several such rooms in Paris, and that the commoners could not participate.
The Jeu de Paume Oath
This room has remained famous in the history of France for the oath which was pronounced there on June 20, 1789 by the deputies of the Third Estate and which will take the name of oath of the Jeu de Paume. King Louis XVI wanted to prevent at all costs the Third Estate and its allies of the clergy and the nobility to reconvene, for the States-General were in the process of making a legal revolution. With the decision of 17 June, to dissolve the orders and to create a National Assembly, the king must at all costs regain the advantage and summon the three states for a royal sitting on 23 June. Under the pretext of works of decoration, the Hotel Menus Plaisirs is thus closed by the king, against the advice of his minister Jacques Necker. The provisional president of the newly elected National Assembly, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, presented himself on the morning of June 20, in front of the room, while a detachment of Gardes-Françaises forbade access to it. In the street, the noise of a coup d'etat circulates, the crowd is agitated and the deputies look for another place to continue their work. On the proposal of the deputy Joseph Ignace Guillotin, they invested the room of the Jeu de Paume, in the district Saint-Louis. It is a long building (29 mx 10 m) belonging to private individuals. The walls are painted black to help players see the balls better and the blue ceiling is dotted with lily flowers. For every furniture one installs some seats and, as a table, a door on two barrels.
This scene was immortalized by the great esoteric painting of the painter Jacques-Louis David. The room became national in 1793.
The Museum of the French Revolution
The Jeu de Paume room was abandoned under the second empire, before being transformed by the republicans into a museum of the French Revolution in 1883, with the commemoration of the centenary of the Revolution. In 1879, Edmond William the architect of Versailles and Trianon, undertakes the restoration of the room to make a place of memory. He erected a Doric edicule supported by two columns, on his pediment is a Gaulish cock in gilded bronze, the work of Auguste Cain. Under this edicule, he placed the marble statue of Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793), president of the Third Estate and first to take the oath on June 20, 1789. Complementing this scenographic device of immersion, busts representing the main actors of the 20 June are aligned along the wall. Around the hall, on a frieze are painted the names of the signatories of the oath and on the back wall, artist-painter Luc-Olivier Merson reproduced, in camaieu, the Oath of the game of palm of David. On June 20, 1883, the museum was inaugurated by President Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau and Minister of Instruction and Fine Arts, Jules Ferry.
The Jeu de Paume room is listed as a historic monument by a decree of 22 March 1848. It should be noted that this is the first place in France to be the subject of a protection decree and will remain the only one In 1886. Indeed, until this date the protection of monuments is only made by official lists, established by the Ministry of Education and Fine Arts.
The Legacy of 1789
Entirely renovated in 1988, on the occasion of the bicentenary celebrations of the revolution in 1989, the Salle de Jeu de Paume receives President François Mitterrand to commemorate the legacy of Bailly and the spirit of 1789.
Currently managed under the responsibility of the public establishment of the castle, the museum and the national domain of Versailles, it is open to the public every afternoon.