Doorsnede van het gebouw Hotel de la Monnaie

Adolphe Chappuis made this print, Doorsnede van het gebouw Hotel de la Monnaie, sometime in the 19th century. It shows a cross-section of the Hotel de la Monnaie building. Prints like this one reflect the 19th-century fascination with architectural precision and historical documentation, capturing a moment when France sought to define its national identity through its built environment. The Hôtel de la Monnaie wasn't just a building; it was a symbol of French economic power, designed to impress with its grandeur and solidity. But if you look closer, you might see how the print omits the lives of the countless laborers whose work made such buildings possible. It invites us to consider whose stories are told through architecture and whose are left out. How are the stories of labor and capital interwoven into the very stones of this building? Prints like this offer a glimpse into the past but also provoke questions about who gets to shape history and how we choose to remember it.