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The College of Navarre was founded by the testament of Jeanne de Navarre, queen of France and wife of Philip IV the Fair, in 1304. Intended to help young scholars "oppressed by poverty" to take up higher studies, Navarre housed seventy students: thirty in the arts, twenty in theology and twenty in law. The queen bequeathed her hôtel on the rue St-André-des-Arts and the sum of 2000 pounds. Executors of the queen's will sold the hôtel and located the new college on the rue de la Montagne Ste-Geneviève. The first stone of the chapel was laid 2 April 1309 and the college was ready to receive masters and students by 1315. The college was almost entirely ruined durig the reign of Charles VI (1380-1422) and rebuilt. Pierre d'Ailli, named grandmaster in 1384, constructed a new building divided into twelve large rooms and in 1420 left his entire library to the college. Extensive restoration continued during the reign of Louis XI and in 1496 Charles VIII gave 2400 pounds to activate work. The library was finished in 1506. The medieval buildings of the College of Navarre was demolished in 1845 and the replaced by the present structures of the Ecole Polytechnique. The college assembled of a variety of building types to compose an educational complex that was described as "le plus beau de Paris." Tall stone gabled houses formed the entrance to the college: businesses were located on the ground floor of three of the houses; a portal through the fourth opened into the inner courtyard that contained the large chapel and other college buildings. In design, Navarre brought together the domestic traditions of the early Parisian colleges, often located in houses donated by their founders, and monastic colleges, such as the Bernardines or Cluny, whose introverted plans were derived from monastic traditions. Its elimination of enclosing walls and the facade of houses established a secular demeanor that linked it with the surrounding urban fabric, while the succession of courtyards secured its residents a measure of tranquillity in the midst of the city. |
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