Palais des Études, Fine arts academy building in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, France

The Palais des Études is the main building of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, constructed from 1832 to 1839 by architect Félix Duban, who took over from François Debret. Its pale stone facade has a rusticated ground floor, a central arched entrance, and a main storey of large arched windows with grilles between pilasters. In 1863 Duban covered the courtyard with a metal frame and glass roof, supported by hollow columns that also serve as gutters.

The former Petits-Augustins convent was assigned to the École des Beaux-Arts by royal decree of 18 September 1816, after Alexandre Lenoir's museum of French monuments closed. François Debret became the school's architect in 1819 and laid the first stone of the Loges building on 3 May 1820. On 31 July 1832 completion passed to his former pupil and brother-in-law Félix Duban, who finished the Palais des Études in 1839, modelled on the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome.

The upper galleries hold 52 copies of Raphael's 1519 Vatican Loggia frescoes, made by Paul and Raymond Balze between 1835 and 1840 at Ingres's request and installed here in 1854–1855. In the hemicycle, Paul Delaroche's La Renommée distribuant les couronnes, finished in 1841, gathers imagined portraits of European painters, sculptors and architects around Phidias, Ictinus and Apelles.

The Palais des Études stands within the École des Beaux-Arts complex off rue Bonaparte, entered from the paved courtyard where the column with the green statue faces the facade. The glass-roofed courtyard and the first-floor galleries are seen on guided visits; the school remains a working institution, so access follows its opening arrangements.

The slender hollow columns at the front of the glass-court facade double as rainwater downpipes; Duban modelled them on finds at Pompeii. The metal frame and glazing were fitted in 1863 by the locksmith Travers, closing the open court of his 1839 building.