Architectural tour

A complex dedicated to music

Located in the northeast of Paris, in the Parc de la Villette, the Cité de la musique is one of French President François Mitterrand’s last major projects. Inaugurated in January 1995, it is an invitation to discover the many facets of music. A place for teaching (with educational activities for adults and children alike) and practising music, information and heritage discovery, the Cité de la musique is aimed at all audiences: music lovers, youth, artists and budding artists, amateurs and professionals.

French architect Christian de Portzamparc, Pritzker Prize winner in 1994, was able to integrate the notion of a global project for music by creating an architectural composition on either side of the Grande Halle, with the Conservatoire de Paris on the west and the Cité de la musique, which we invite you to discover, on the east.

Volumes, rhythms and nuances of colour, movements, ruptures of volume, Christian de Portzamparc composes and orchestrates a place of discovery, like a score of music to be heard and explored. “I imagined it like a music suite, an ensemble to be discovered in the sequences of an itinerary, over time. Here, in this experience of movement, links and surprises, is where architecture meets music.” (Christian de Portzamparc).