The Tuileries Palace or Palais de Tuileries, which once stood on the right bank of the River Seine, displaying an immense façade of 873 feet (266 m), was the usual Parisian residence of many French monarchs, until it was burned by the Paris Commune in 1871.The idea to build the palace was conceived by Catherine de’ Medici, right after the untimely tragic death of her husband, King Henry II of France, in 1559.

To fulfil the purpose, she sold the 14th-century Hôtel des Tournelles, where her husbanddied from wounds that he receivedduring a game of jousting in which two opponents on horseback fight with lances and started to construct the palace in 1564, with the help of architect Philibert de I’Orme, a grand master of the French Renaissance. The palace, formed by a long range of narrow buildings, was named after the tile kilns or Tuileries, the tile manufacturing sites, which had previously occupied the site. Later, during the reign of Henry IV, the building was enlarged and joined the long riverside gallery, the Grande Galerie, which in turn was connected with the old Louvre Palace in the east.

However, major changes of the Tuileries Palace took place during the reign of King Louis IV, the longest recorded monarch of a sovereign country in history. With the addition of the Théâtre des Tuileries, the palace was extended to the north from 1659 to 1661 and after that, the architect Louis Le Vau and his assistant François d'Orbay made other significant changes to it during 1664 to 1666.

Apart from transforming the central pavilion and the facades created by Philibert de l'Orme, they also replaced the grand central staircase with a colonnaded vestibule on the ground floor and the Hall of the Hundred Swiss Guards or the Salle des Cents Suisses on the floor above, adding a rectangular dome on it. Additionally, a new grand staircase was installed inside the entrance of the north wing of the palace and richly decorated grandeur royal apartments were constructed in the south wing. While the magnificent king's rooms were meticulously arranged on the ground floor, facing toward the Louvre, the queen's rooms were aligned on the floor above, overlooking the garden. At the same time, the Tuileries Garden was also redesigned. Finally, the Court moved into the Tuileries Palace in November 1667, but left it for the Palace of Versailles in 1672 and it remained virtually abandoned, except to be used for theatrical performances, although its gardens became a fashionable resort of Parisians. Long after that, when Louis XV succeeded his great-grandfather Louis IV at the age of five, the boy-king, known as Louis the Beloved, was moved from Versailles to the Tuileries Palace, within a few months after ascending to the throne in September 1715. However, three months before his coronation on 15 June 1722, he moved back to Versailles and later resided at the Tuileries for short periods during the 1740s.

However, due to the changed political situation prevailing in the country, King Louis VI, the Grandson of Louis XV, and his family were forced to leave Versailles during the French Revolution and were brought to the Tuileries on 6 October 1789, where they were kept under surveillance. Nevertheless, with the hope to initiate a counter revolution, the royal family, which included King Louis VI, Queen Marie Antoinette and their immediate family, attempted unsuccessfully to escape the palace after dark on 20 June 1791, but were captured at Varennes and were brought back to the Tuileries, where they had to live under visible house arrest.

The incident proved to be a turning point that fuelled the popular hostility towards the French monarchy as an institution, as well as towards the king and queen as individuals. At the same time, the futile flight of the king proved to be traumatic for France that incited several reactions ranging from anxiety to violence and panic. Next year, on 10 August 1792, an armed mob stormed the Tuileries Palace, overwhelmed and brutally massacred the Swiss Guard, while the royal family fled through the gardens and took refuge with the Legislative Assembly. The next January, Louis was convicted of treason and guillotined on 21 January 1793, followed by Queen Marie Antoinette nine months later.

Later, when Napoleon Bonaparte assumed power to start the Napoleonic Empire in 1804, he made the Tuileries the imperial palace, redecorated it in the Neoclassical Empire style, invented jointly by Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine and also began constructing the northern gallery in 1808, connecting the Louvre and enclosing a huge square. The palace was also the royal residence during the Bourbon Restoration from 1814 to 1830. However, during the July Revolution of 1830, it was attacked for the third time and was occupied by an armed mob. After that, King Louis Philippe I took up permanent residence there until 1848, but the history was repeated when it was invaded again on 24 February. During the Second Empire, the Tuileries was extensively refurbished and redecorated after repairing the damage that occurred during the Revolution of 1848 and some of the imposing staterooms were also redesigned and lavishly decorated. Unlike at Versailles, both the apartments of the king and the queen were located on the same floor in the Tuileries and the apartment of the king was the grander of the two. While the Private Drawing Room or Salon d'Apollon was used for an informal dinner, the gala dinners were held in the larger Galerie de Diane, the southernmost of the state apartments. The little-used northern wing of the palace, containing the chapel, Galerie de la Paix, also contained the Salle de Spectacle, used during special occasions, like the performance of Auber cantata in the evening of the civil marriage between Napoleon and Eugénie, or the party arranged to entertain the sovereigns attending the International Exposition, on 10 June 1867.

As if to give the last touch in the canvas, the northern wing of the Louvre along the rue de Rivoli, linking the Tuileries Palace with the rest of the Louvre, which was designed in the master plan three centuries earlier and kept in abeyance for an unusually long time, was also completed during the Second Empire, completing the huge complex of the Louvre-Tuileries.

Unfortunately, during the suppression of the Paris Commune, twelve men under the orders of a commander of the Commune set the Tuileries on fire on 23 May 1871 at 7 pm, using highly inflammable items like petroleum, liquid tar and turpentine. The fire, which lasted 48 hours, thoroughly gutted the historic palace and blew up its magnificent dome. The ruins of the Palais des Tuileries stood there for long 11 years, resembling a sad picture of miserably distressed. The devastating fire played havoc and while the roofs were collapsed, the inside of the palace had been destroyed completely. However, the restoration of the building was very much possible, as the stone shell of the palace remained intact. But after much discussion, deliberation and hesitation, the Third Republic ultimately decided not to restore the ruins of the historic Tuileries, as it basically symbolised the former royal and imperial regimes. In 1882, the French National Assembly voted for the demolition of the ruins, despite the vehement protests of Baron Haussmann and other members of French artistic circles, who thought that the decision was a crime against French arts and history.

To mark the tragic end of one of the beautiful palaces in France, the process of demolition of the Tuileries Palace started in February 1883 and completed on 30 September 1883.