The Palais Brongniart is a building wanted by Napoleon to be the headquarters of the Paris Stock Exchange, originally created by Louis XV in 1724. It was commissioned in 1807 from the architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, then at the peak of his career. The Emperor wanted it simple and beautiful like a Greek temple. To highlight it, it was decided to build it on the site of a convent running from rue Saint-Augustin to rue Feydeau, in the business district. From 1826, the year of its inauguration, to 1998, the Palais Brongniart housed the Paris Stock Exchange, as well as the Commercial Court, until 1864. Designed by its author, who died before it was completed, on the model from the palace of Vespasian in Rome, it was completed by Éloi Labarre. He modified some of the exterior arrangements planned by Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart. It was also Labarre who completed the Commercial Court room which he had decorated with allegorical paintings. In 1987, the Brongniart Palace was listed as a Historic Monument.
The sober elegance and architectural solidity of the imposing rectangular stone facade are characteristic of neoclassical style constructions. The row of Corinthian columns is preceded by two allegories, among the four added to the corners of the building in 1851 and 1852, Agriculture, Industry, Commerce and Justice, the latter, the work of Francisque Duret, erected on the pedestal left front of the building. Another allegory of Justice, by Louis-Denis Caillouette, installed on the first floor, thus emphasizes the history of the Palais Brongniart until 1864: the meeting in the same place, following an idea inherited from the French Revolution , commerce and commercial justice.
