As early as 1900, the Grand Palais was conceived as a multi-purpose building. This intention guided the very idea of the nave, an architectural structure capable of hosting major popular events of all kinds, from horse shows to automobile and aeronautics fairs. Going beyond its vocation as a palace of fine arts, the glass and stone edifice was, thanks to its many fairs and events, the mirror of its century: an adventurous, pioneering, daring century, when the most futuristic human imagination was embodied for the first time in automobiles, airplanes and wireless radios. A cradle of innovation, perpetually on the move, always in the vanguard, the Grand Palais was home to the most modern inventions of its time, and evoking the salons that made up its hours of glory is like leafing through the great book of the twentieth century.
