The Palace's final royal inhabitants were Napoleon III and his wife, Empress Eugénie. They held court beneath a canopy of violet velvet embroidered with gold, while their imperial apartments were decorated in an extraordinarily opulent style with an abundance of gold leaf and paintings everywhere, even on the ceiling.

However, Napoleon III wasn't able to hang onto power and was deposed in 1870. Just a year later on the night of 23 May 1871, as the National Guard clashed with the revolutionary Paris Commune, dozens of landmark buildings across the city burned to the ground. The Tuileries Palace was one of them. Its ruins stood for over 10 years before they were eventually pulled down in 1883.

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