L’HÔTEL DE VILLE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS
The Hôtel de Ville, which gives its name to the arrondissement, is a
modern erection built as closely as possible on the plan and from the
designs of the fine Renaissance structure of the sixteenth century burnt
to the ground by the Communards in 1871. Place de l’Hôtel de Ville,
where it stands, was until 1830 Place de Grève, the Place du Port de
Grève of anterior days, days going back to Roman times. Like the Paris
Cathedral, the hôtel de Ville is closely linked with the most marked
events of French history. The first hôtel de Ville was known as la
Maison-aux-Piliers, previously l’hôtel des Dauphins du Viennois, bought
in 1357 by Étienne Marcel, Prévôt des Marchands, of historic memory
(_see_ p. 39), whose statue we see in the garden. The first stone of the
fine building burnt in 1871 was laid by François I in 1533, its last one
in the time of Henri IV. On the Square before it executions took place,
for offences criminal, political, religious, by burning, strangling,
hanging and the guillotine. In its centre stood a tall Gothic cross
reared upon eight steps, at the foot of which the condemned said their
last prayers. The guillotine first set up there in 1792 was soon moved
about, as we know, to different points of the city, when used for
political victims. Common-law criminals continued to expiate their evil
deeds on Place de Grève. It was a comparatively small _place_ in those
days. Its enlargement in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries caused
the destruction of many old streets, in one of which was the famous
Maison de la Lanterne. Close up against the Hôtel de Ville stood in past
days the old church St-Jean-en-Grève and a hospice; both were
incorporated in the town hall by Napoléon I. The entire building was
destroyed in 1871, but the present structure is remarkably fine in every
part, both within and without, and the Salle St-Jean, memorizing the
church once there, is splendidly decorated. The Avenue Victoria, on the
site of ancient streets, memorizes the visit of the English Queen in
1855. The short Rue de la Tâcherie (from _tâche_: task, work) crossing
it, was in the thirteenth century Rue de la Juiverie, for here we are in
the neighbourhood of what is still the Jews’ quarter.
[Illustration: PLACE DE GRÈVE]
A modern garden-square surrounds the beautiful Tour St-Jacques, all that
is left of the ancient church St-Jacques-la-Boucherie, built in the
fifteenth century, on the site of a chapel of the eighth century,
finished in the sixteenth, entirely restored in the nineteenth century
and again recently. It is used as an observatory. Paris weather
statistics hail from la Tour St-Jacques.
On the site of the modern Place du Châtelet rose in bygone ages the
primitive tower of the Grand Châtelet, which developed under
Louis-le-Gros into a strongly fortified castle and prison guarding the
bridge across the Seine to the right, while the Petit Châtelet guarded
it on the left bank. A _chandelle_--a flaming tallow candle--set up by
command of Philippe-le-Long near its doorway, is said to be the origin
of the lighting, dim enough as it was for centuries, of Paris streets.
The fortress was rebuilt by Louis XIV; part of it served as the Morgue
until it was razed to the ground in 1802. The fountain plays where the
prison once stood. Numerous old streets lead out of the modern Rue de
Rivoli at this point. Rue Nicolas-Flamel, running where good Nicolas had
a fine _hôtel_ in the early years of the fifteenth century, and Rue
Pernelle recording the name of his wife, have existed under other names
from the thirteenth century. Rue St-Bon recalls the chapel on the spot
in still earlier times.
Rue St-Martin beginning at Quai des Gesvres, the high road to the north
of Roman days, after cutting through Avenue Victoria, crosses Rue de
Rivoli at this point, and here was the first of the four Portes which in
succession marked the city boundary on this side. The beautiful
sixteenth-century church we see here, St-Merri, stands on the site of a
chapel built in the seventh century. In a Gothic crypt remains of its
patron saint who lived and died on the spot are reverently guarded, and
the bones of Eudes the Falconer, the redoubtable warrior who dowered the
church, discovered in perfect preservation in a stone coffin in the
time of François I, lie in the choir. It is a wonderfully interesting
structure, with fine glass, woodwork, mouldings, statues and statuettes.
The statuettes we see on the walls of the porch are comparatively
modern, replacing the ancient ones destroyed at the Revolution.
[Illustration: LA TOUR ST-JACQUES]
[Illustration: VIEW ACROSS THE SEINE FROM PLACE DU CHÂTELET]
[Illustration: RUE BRISEMICHE]
[Illustration: L’ÉGLISE ST-GERVAIS]
Rue de la Verrerie bordering the southern walls of the church and
running on almost to Rue Vieille-du-Temple, dates from the twelfth
century and reminds us by its name of the glaziers and glass painters’
Company, developed from the confraternity which in 1187 made the old
street its quarter. Louis XIV, finding this a convenient road on the way
to Vincennes, had it enlarged. There dwelt Jacquemin Gringonneur, who,
it is said, invented playing cards for the distraction of the insane
King Charles VI. Bossuet’s father and many other persons of position or
repute lived in the old houses which remain or in others on the site of
the more modern ones. At No. 76 was the _hôtel_ inhabited by Suger, the
Minister of Louis VI and Louis VII; part of its ancient walls were
incorporated in the church in the sixteenth century. Here, too, is the
presbytery, where in the courtyard we find a wonderful old spiral
staircase, its summit higher than the church roof. Old streets and
passages wind in and out around the church. Exploring them, we come upon
interesting vestiges innumerable. The ancient clergy house is at No. 76,
Rue St-Martin. Rue Cloître-St-Merri, Rue Taille-pain, Rue Brise-Miche,
these two referring to the bakery once there and bread portioned out,
cut or broken for the Clergy; Rue St-Merri and its old passage, Impasse
du Bœuf, with its eighteenth-century grille; Rue Pierre-au-lard, a
humorous adaptation of the name Pierre Aulard, borne by a notable
parishioner of the eighteenth century. Passage Jabach on the site of the
home of the rich banker of the seventeenth century whose fine collection
of pictures were the nucleus of the treasures of the Louvre. Impasse
St-Fiacre, the word saint cut away at the Revolution, where dwelt the
first hirer-out of cabs; hence the term _fiacre_. Rue de la Reynie
(thirteenth century), renamed in memory of the Lieutenant-General of
Police who, in 1669, ordered the lighting of Paris streets, but did
not provide lamplighters. Private citizens were bound daily to light and
extinguish the lanterns then placed at the end and in the middle of each
thoroughfare. Everyone of these streets, dull and grimy though they be,
are full of interest for the explorer. Going on up Rue St-Martin, we see
on both sides numerous features of interest. Look at Nos. 97, 100, 103,
104; and at No. 116, called Maison des Goths, with its fine old frieze.
At No. 120 there are two storeyed cellars and in one of them a well. The
fontaine Maubuée at No. 122 is referred to in old documents so early as
1320. Its name shortened from _mauvaise buée_, i.e. _mauvaise fumée_, is
not suggestive of the purity of its waters at that remote period; the
fountain was reconstructed in 1733--the house some sixty years later.
The upper end of Rue Simon-le-Franc, which we turn into here, was until
recent times Rue Maubuée. It may, perhaps, still deserve the name. Rue
Simon-le-Franc is one of the oldest among all these old streets, for it
was a thoroughfare in the year 1200. It records the name of a worthy
citizen of his day, one Simon Franque. All the houses are ancient, some
very picturesque. Next in date is that most characteristic of old-time
streets, the Rue de Venise. The name, a misnomer, dates only from 1851,
due to an old sign. The street was known by various appellations since
its formation somewhere about the year 1250. Every house and court there
is ancient, the space between those on either side so narrow that the
tall, dark buildings seem to meet at their apex. No. 27 is the old inn
“l’Épée de Bois,” lately renovated and its name changed to “L’Arrivée de
Venise,” where from the year 1658 a company of musicians and
dancing-masters duly licensed by Mazarin used to meet under the
direction of “Le roi des violons,” their chief. This was, in fact, the
nucleus of the Académie National of Music and Dancing, known later as
the Conservatoire. Great men of letters too were wont to meet in that
old inn. Rue de Venise opens into Rue Beaubourg, a road that stretched
through a _beau bourg_, i.e. a fine township, so far back as the
eleventh century, with special privileges, the rights of citizenship for
its inhabitants although lying without the boundary-wall. No. 4, now
razed, was the “Restaurant du Bon Bourg,” _tenu par_ “le Roi du Bon
Vin.” To the left is Rue des Étuves, i.e. Bath Street, with houses old
and curious. Rue de Venise runs at its lower end into the famous Rue de
Quincampoix, the street of Law’s bank (_see_ p. 63), where every house
is ancient or has vestiges of past ages. No. 43 was a shop let in Law’s
time at the rate of 100 francs a day. The street leads down into Rue des
Lombards, the ancient usurers’ and pawnbrokers’ street, inhabited in
these days by a very opposite class--herborists. Tradition says
Boccaccio was born here. Rue du Temple, Rue des Archives, Rue
Vieille-du-Temple, Rue de Sévigné, traversed in part in the 3rd
arrondissement (_see_ p. 108) all have their lower numbers in this 4th
arrondissement, the first three branching off from Rue de Rivoli, the
last from Rue St-Antoine. At No. 61, Rue du Temple, on the site of the
vanished Couvent des Filles de Ste-Avoie, we see an old gabled house. In
the courtyard of No. 57, l’hôtel de Titon, the Bastille armourer. At No.
41 the old tavern “l’Aigle d’Or.” No. 20 is the ancient office of the
Gabelles--the salt-tax. Here we see an old sign taken from the vicinity
of St-Gervais, showing the famous elm-tree, of which more anon. Every
house shows some interesting old-time feature. This brings us again
close up to the Hôtel de Ville, where we see the venerable church
St-Gervais-et-St-Protais, dating in its present form from the sixteenth
century, on the site of a church built there in the sixth. That
primitive erection grew into a beautiful church in the early years of
the twelfth century. Some of the exquisite work of that day may still be
seen by turning up the narrow passage to the left, where we find the
ancient _charniers_. Rebuilding was undertaken two centuries later. A
curious half-effaced inscription on an old wall within refers to this
reconstruction and its dedication fête day, instituted in honour of
“Messieurs St. Gervais et St. Protais.” The last rebuilding was in 1581.
Then in the seventeenth century, the Renaissance façade was added to the
Gothic edifice behind it by Salomon de Brosse. The church is full of
precious artistic work, glorious glass, frescoes, statuary and rich in
historic associations. Madame de Sévigné was married here; Scarron was
married to the young girl destined to become Mme de Maintenon, and was
perhaps buried in the beautiful Chapelle-Dorée. The church has always
suffered in time of war. At the Revolution the insurgents tried to shake
down its fine tall pillars; the marks are still to be seen. In
1830-48-71 cannon balls pierced its belfry walls, and now on Good Friday
of this war-year 1918, the enemy’s gun, firing at a range of
seventy-five miles, struck its roof, laid low a great pillar, brought
death and wounding to the assembled congregation. On the _place_ before
the church we see a tree railed round. A shadier elm-tree stood there
once, the famous Orme de St-Gervais, beneath which justice--or maybe at
times injustice--was administered in the open air, in long-past ages.
[Illustration: HÔTEL DE BEAUVAIS, RUE FRANÇOIS-MIRON]
Rue François-Miron running east, its lower end the ancient Rue
St-Antoine, shows us the _orme_, figured in the ironwork of all its
balconies. This end of the street was known in olden days as Rue du
Pourtour St-Gervais, then as Rue du Monceau St-Gervais, referring to the
wide stretch of waste ground in the vicinity which, unbuilt upon for
centuries, was a favourite site for festive gatherings and tournaments.
It records the name of the Prévôt des Marchands of the sixteenth century
to whom was due the façade of the Hôtel de Ville, burnt in 1871. Its
houses are for the most part ancient. No. 13, quaint and gabled,
fifteenth century. No. 82 the old mansion of President Henault. No. 68
hôtel de Beauvais, associated with many historic personages and events,
has Gothic cellars which of yore formed part of the monastastic house
where Tasso wrote his great poem “Jerusalem Delivered.” The walls above
those fine cellars were knocked down in the third decade of the
seventeenth century and replaced in 1655 by those we see there now,
built as the hôtel de Beauvais, destined to see many changes. At the
Revolution the grand old mansion was for a time a coach-office, then a
house let out in flats. Mozart is said to have stayed there in 1763.
Behind the church is the old Rue des Barres with an ancient inscription
and traces of an ancient chapel. The sordid but picturesque Rue de
l’Hôtel de Ville was known for centuries as Rue de la Mortellerie, from
the _morteliers_, or masons who had settled there. In the dread cholera
year 1832 the inhabitants saw in the name of their street a sinister
reference to the word _mort_ and demanded its change. Every house has
some feature of old-time interest. Beneath No. 56 there is a Gothic
cellar, once, tradition says, a chapel founded by Blanche de France,
grand-daughter of Philippe-le-Bel, who died in 1358. At No. 39 we see
the narrowest street in Paris, Rue du Paon Blanc, erewhile known as the
“descente à la rivière.” Nos. 8-2 is the venerable hôtel de Sens (_see_
p. 117).
In Rue Geoffroy l’Asnier, between Rue de l’Hôtel de Ville and Rue
François-Miron, thirteenth century, we find among many other vestiges of
old times the fine seventeenth-century door of hôtel Chalons at No. 26.
In Rue de Jouy of the same period and interest, at No. 12 and No. 14,
dependencies of l’hôtel Beauvais; at No. 7 l’hôtel d’Aumont, built in
1648 on the site of the house where Richelieu was born. At No. 9, the
École Sophie-Germain, the ancient hôtel de Fourcy, previously inhabited
by a rich bourgeois family.
Rue des Archives (_see_ p. 74) is chiefly interesting in its course
through this arrondissement for the old church des Billettes (_see_ p.
76) on the site of the house of the Jew Jonathas, so called from the
sign hung outside a neighbouring house--_a billot_--i.e. log of wood.
Rebuilt in 1745, closed at the Revolution, the church was given to the
Protestants in 1808. The beautiful cloisters of the fifteenth-century
structure were left untouched and are enclosed in the school adjoining
the church. Rue Ste-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie dates from the early years
of the thirteenth century and is rich in relics of past ages. Its name
records the existence there of the thirteenth-century church de
l’Exaltation de la Ste-Croix and of a convent instituted in 1258 in the
ancient Monnaie du Roi--the Mint--suppressed at the Revolution, but of
which traces are still seen on the square. At No. 47 we see a turret
dating from 1610. The dispensary at No. 44 is the old hôtel Feydeau de
Brou (1760). No. 35 belonged to the old church Chapter. The boys’ school
at No. 22 is ancient. No. 20 dates from 1696. Rue Aubriot from the
thirteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century was Rue du
Puits-au-Marais. Aubriot was the thirteenth-century Prévôt de Paris, an
active builder, and who first laid drains beneath Paris streets. No. 10
dates from the first years of the seventeenth century. Vestiges of that
or an earlier age are seen all along the street. Rue des Blancs-Manteaux
recalls the begging Friars, servants of Mary, wearing long white
cloaks, who settled here in 1258. They united a few years later with the
Guillemites, whose name is recorded in a neighbouring street of ancient
date. Their church at No. 12 was entirely rebuilt in 1685, and in 1863
the portal of the demolished Barnabite church added to its façade.
Remains of the old convent buildings are incorporated in the
Mont-de-Piété opposite. At No. 14 we see traces of the old Priory. No.
22 and No. 25 have fine old staircases and other interesting vestiges.
The cabaret de “l’Homme Armé” existed in the fifteenth century. We find
ancient vestiges, often fine staircases, at most of the houses.
[Illustration: RUE VIEILLE-DU-TEMPLE]
Rue Vieille-du-Temple, which begins its long course opposite the Mairie,
has lost its first numbers. This old street shows us interesting
features at every step. No. 15, hôtel de Vibraye. No. 20, Impasse de
l’hôtel d’Argenson. No. 24, hôtel of the Maréchal d’Effiat, father of
Cinq Mars. The short Rue du Trésor at its side was so named in 1882 from
the treasure-trove found beneath the _hôtel_ when cutting the street,
gold pieces of the time of King Jean and Charles V in a copper vase, a
sum of something like 120,000 francs in the money of to-day. At No. 42
opens Rue des Rosiers; roses once grew in gardens there. At No. 43
Passage des Singes, leading into Rue des Guillemites, once Rue des
Singes. No. 45 shows a façade claiming to date back to the year 1416.
No. 47, hôtel des Ambassadeurs de Hollande, recalling the days when
Dutch diplomats dwelt there and took persecuted Protestants under their
protection, is on the site of the _hôtel_ of Jean de Rieux, before which
the duc d’Orléans met his death at the hands of Jean Sans Peur, the
habitation of historic persons and events until Revolution days, when
it was taken for dancing saloons. Here we see splendid vestiges of past
grandeur: vaulted ceilings, sculptures, frescoes. The Marché des
Blancs-Manteaux, in the street opening at No. 46, is part of an ancient
mansion. Turning down Rue des Hospitalières-St-Gervais, recalling the
hospital once there, we find in Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, at No. 35, an
old _hôtel_. At No. 31, l’hôtel d’Albret, its first stone laid in 1550
by Connétable Anne de Montmorency, restored in the eighteenth century.
At No. 25, one side of the fine hôtel Lamoignon. Crossing Rue des
Rosiers we turn down Rue des Écouffes, an ancient street of pawnbrokers,
where in a house on the site of No. 20, Philippe de Champaigne, the
great painter, lived and died (1674). Rue du Roi de Sicile records the
existence there, and on land around, of the palace of Charles d’Anjou,
brother of St. Louis, crowned King of Naples and Sicily in 1266. The
mansion changed hands many times and in 1698 became the hôtel de la
Grande Force, a noted prison. Part of it became later the Caserne des
Pompiers in Rue Sévigné; the rest was demolished. On the site of the
house No. 2 lived Bault and his wife, jailers of Marie-Antoinette. And
here, at the corner of Rue Malher, Princesse de Lamballe and many of her
compeers were slain in the “Massacres of September.”
Rue Ferdinand-Duval, till 1900 from about the year 1000 Rue des Juifs,
is full of old-time relics. At No. 20 we find a courtyard and _hôtel_
known in past days as l’hôtel des Juifs. Nos. 18 and 16, site of the
hospital du Petit St-Antoine in pre-Revolution days, of a famous shop
store under the Empire.
Rue Pavée dates from the early years of the thirteenth century, the
first street in Paris to be paved. Here at Nos. 11 and 13 lived the
duke of Norfolk, British Ambassador in 1533. At No. 12 we find two old
staircases, once those of an ancient _hôtel_ incorporated in the prison
of La Force. At No. 24 stands the fine old hôtel de Lamoignon, rebuilt
on the site of an older structure, by Diane de France, daughter of Henri
II (sixteenth century), the natal house of Lamoignon de Malesherbes,
renowned for his defence of Louis XVI. Alphonse Daudet lived here for a
time. Close by was the prison la Petite Force, a woman’s prison, too
well known in Revolution days by numerous notable women of the time. In
Rue de Sévigné, which begins here, we turn at No. 11 into the garden of
a bathing establishment on the site of a smaller hôtel Lamoignon, where
in 1790 Beaumarchais built the théâtre du Marais, otherwise l’Athénée
des Étrangers, with materials from the demolished Bastille. Here we see
before us one single wall of the demolished prison de la Force, and an
indication of the spot where thirty royalist prisoners were put to
death. Rue de Jarente, so named from the Prior of the monastic
institution, Ste-Catherine du Val des Escholiers, erewhile here, shows
us an old fountain in the Impasse de la Poissonnerie. Rue d’Ormesson
stretches across the eighteenth-century priory fish market.