The Topographical Evolution of the City of Paris 
ous medieval and Renaissance hotels and 
monasteries which were not especially monu¬ 
mental. Louis XIV. and his group of 
architects engaged upon the development 
of the Louvre, felt the need of some im¬ 
portant monument to balance that building 
on the other side of the river. The splendid 
legacy which Mazarin left at his death in 
1661 for a “ College des Quatre Nations” 
gave them precisely the opportunity which 
they required. Louis Levan, chief of works 
at the Louvre, proposed, with the earnest 
support of Louis XIV., that the property 
about the old Tour de Nesle be secured and 
the new college be built on the axis of the 
Louvre quadrangle. The scheme was ac¬ 
cepted and the College des Ouatre Nations, 
now the Institut, was built by him according 
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