1876 Clerget View of the Trocadero Palace at the Paris Exposition Universelle

This is an 1876 Clerget view of the Palais de Trocadéro from the 1878 Exposition Universelle (World's Fair) in Paris. This view shows the façade of the Palais du Trocadéro as it would have been seen from the Champ de Mars. The Palais de Trocadéro was built specifically for the 1878 Exposition Universelle as the venue for greeting important foreign dignitaries visiting the fair, and as a concert hall and exhibition gallery. The concert hall contained the largest organ ever assembled in France at that time. The Palais de Trocadéro was not meant to survive past the 1878 Exposition Universelle, just as the Eiffel Tower was not meant to remain after the 1889 Exposition Universelle. The newly-completed head of the Statue of Liberty was displayed in the gardens of the Palais de Trocadéro.

The Palais de Trocadéro was destroyed in 1937 and replaced with the Palais de Chaillot for the 1937 Exposition Internationale, which stands to this day. Upon its demolition, the four statues of the continents, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and America, which decorated the façade of the Palais de Trocadéro, have been installed in front of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Three monumental statues of animals, a rhinoceros, an elephant, and a horse, which had been in the gardens of the Palais de Trocadéro, have also been installed in front of the Musée d'Orsay. A fourth, a statue of a bull, can now be seen in Nîmes, France.

The 1878 Exposition Universelle took place on the Champ de Mars and the Chaillot hill, which were connected by the Pont d'Iéna (the Iéna Bridge). Today, the Eiffel Tower and the Palais de Chaillot sit on either side of the Pont d'Iéna. The Exposition was meant to celebrate France's 'resurgence' following their quick and ignominious defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. It featured the Avenue des Nations (Avenue of Nations), which was devoted to examples of domestic architecture from nations across the world, the 'Gallery of Machines' on the Champ de Mars.

This view was published in the November 4, 1876 issue of Le Monde Illustré.Le Monde Illustré was a weekly news magazine published in France from 1857-1940 and again from 1945-1956. This view was drawn by Hubert Clerget and engraved by Roch Regnier and Co.