Back to school in 2022: the Foundation welcomes new students to rue de Lille

A journey through the story of Inalco and discovery of its historic headquarters

The Inalco Foundation was pleased to invite new Inalco students to the lecture by the Mémorialiste des Langues O', Professor Emmanuel Lozerand, which took place on:

Thursday, September 29 at 18:30
Auditorium Georges Dumézil
2, rue de Lille
75007 Paris

The lecture was followed by a cocktail reception.

Many of you came, much to our delight!

The history of rue de Lille

The ancestor of Inalco was originally located within the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and was, for the first 80 years of its existence, a small establishment frequented by a very small number of scholars.

After the 1867 Universal Exhibition, oriental studies gained in popularity and the establishment experienced its first major expansion in terms of attendance. Space was in short supply, and it was Charles Schefer, Professor of Persian and President of the School, who set about finding decent premises. In the years that followed, Langues O' moved into the Collège de France administrator's apartment, which had been left unoccupied. In 1873, the Hôtel de Bernage, located at 2 rue de Lille, was allocated to the school. For the first time in its history, the School had a place of its own.

In 1914, the establishment obtained a new status: that of Ecole Nationale des Langues Orientales Vivantes (ENLOV). More and more students come here to learn languages. Russian is the first language to enjoy great success.

Student numbers only increase from the 1940s onwards. Japanese studies became increasingly popular during the 1960s, followed by Chinese studies from the 1970s. At the same time, the school became part of the University of Paris 3 under the name INLCO (Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales), soon renamed Inalco. At the same time, part of Langues O' was moved to what is now the Université Paris Dauphine, although its activities remained spread over several different sites. Solutions began to be sought to bring all these people together in a place big enough to accommodate them.

This complicated situation came to an end in 2011 with the creation of the Pôle des Langues et Civilisations (PLC), located at 65 rue des Grands Moulins in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. The historic building on rue de Lille will be renovated between January 2019 and February 2020. It currently houses Inalco's research activities. The site will then be renamed Maison de la Recherche de l'Inalco.

The inauguration of this magnificent building is celebrated in October 2021.

It is in this very location that new students were welcomed at the start of the 2022 academic year to learn more about the story of Inalco and the history of the rue de Lille.

Interested in the history of the Institute? A issue of Connaissance des Arts entirely devoted to Inalco released in June 2022 highlights the singularity of its architectural heritage, its history and its uniqueness across its two sites.