History - World Exhibition Paris 1878

With the Second Empire giving way to the Third Republic, the exhibition was opened by Mac-Mahon on 1 May.

The exhibition did not bother with any metaphysics, it was the most discreet, the most cautious, the most balanced, the wisest of the universal exhibitions.

Like all Parisian exhibitions, this one did not fail to live up to the rule by always being located on the Champ de Mars but also at the Trocadero.

On the Champ de Mars, the Palais de L'industrie was located, which was a large rectangular building with a surface area of 420,000m2, formed of perpendicular galleries, which allowed the classification of products by nature in one direction and by nation in the other direction.

The foreign sections were located in the Rue des Nations.

For the construction of the Palais du Trocadéro, which was to be used for congresses and shows, a competition was organised and many projects were presented; that of two architects from the City of Paris, Bourdais and Davioud, won.
The result was a building that reflected the period's penchant for hybridity; the authors married Hispano-Moorish with Romano-Byzantine while mixing in a reflection of contemporary Midi art.

Among the nations present, two brought an absolutely new and original element. China and especially Japan were strongly represented due to the growing interest in oriental art, especially Japanese art.

The exhibition, despite its 16 million visitors, was a loss-making affair, due in large part to the construction of the Trocadero.