LES GOBELINS
ARRONDISSEMENT XIII. (GOBELINS)
The brothers Gobelin, Jehan and Philibert, famous dyers of the day,
established their great factory on the banks of the Bièvre about the
year 1443. Jehan had a fine private mansion in the vicinity of his
dye-works known as Le Cygne. At a little distance, on higher ground, was
another _hôtel_ known as la Folie Gobelin. The rich scarlet dye the
brothers turned out was greatly prized; their business prospered, grew
into a huge concern. But in the first year of the seventeenth century a
Flemish firm of upholsterers came to Paris and established themselves on
the banks of the tributary of the Seine, entirely replacing the
Gobelins’ works. This in its turn yielded to another firm, but the name
remained unchanged. A few years later the firm and all the buildings
connected therewith were taken over by the State, and in 1667, by the
initiative of the minister Colbert, were organized as the royal factory
“des meubles de la Couronne.” On the ancient walls behind the modern
façade we see two inscriptions referring to the founders of the
world-famed factory. This hinder part of the vast building is of special
interest to the lover of old-world vestiges. The central structure, two
wings and the ancient chapel of the original building, still stand, and
around on every side we see quaint old houses in tortuous streets,
courtyards of past centuries, where twentieth-century work goes on
apace, picturesque corners densely inhabited by a busy population. For
this is also the great tanning district of the city. Curious old-world
sights meet us as we wind in and out among these streets and passages
which have stood unchanged for several hundred years. The artistic work
of the great factory was from the first given into the hands of men of
noted ability, beginning in 1667 with Charles le Brun; and from the
first it was regarded as an institution of special interest and
importance. Visitors of mark, royal and other, lay and ecclesiastical,
were taken to see it. The Pope, when in Paris in 1805, did not fail to
visit “les Gobelins.” In 1826 the great Paris soap-works were removed
from Chaillot and set up here in connection with the dye-works. The fine
old building was set fire to by the Communards in 1871--much of it burnt
to the ground, many priceless pieces of tapestry destroyed. At No. 17
Rue des Gobelins, in its earlier days Rue de la Bièvre, crossed by the
stream so carefully hidden beneath its surface now, we see the old
_castel_ de la Reine Blanche. It dates from the sixteenth century, on
the site of a more ancient _castel_, where tradition says the “_bals des
ardents_” were given, notably that of the year 1392 when the accident
took place which turned King Charles VI into a madman. But the “Reine
Blanche,” for whom it was first built, was probably not the mother of
St. Louis, but the widow of Philippe de Valois, who died in 1398. In the
sixteenth century relatives of the brothers Gobelin lived there. Then it
was the head office of the great factory. Revolutionists met there in
1790 to organize the attack of June 20th. In Napoléon’s time it was a
brewery, now it is a tannery.
[Illustration: CASTEL DE LA REINE BLANCHE]
Rue Croulebarbe, once on the banks of the Bièvre, has an old-world,
village-like aspect. The buildings bordering the broad Avenue des
Gobelins are devoid of interest, but beneath several of them important
Roman remains have been found, and besides the old streets running into
the avenue in the immediate vicinity of the Gobelins Factory, we find at
intervals other old streets and passages with many interesting vestiges;
at No. 37, the Cour des Rames. The city gate St-Marcel stood in past
days across the avenue where the house No. 45 now stands. In Rue Le Brun
we see the remains of the _hôtel_ where, in the early years of the
eighteenth century, dwelt Jean Julienne, the master of the Gobelins. Rue
du Banquier shows many curious old-time houses.
In Rue de la Glacière on the western side of the arrondissement, so
named in long-gone days from an ice-house furnished from the Bièvre, and
in the short streets leading out of it, we find old houses here and
there. Rue de la Tannerie was until quite modern times Rue des Anglaises
from the couvent des Filles Anglaises, founded at Cambrai, established
here in 1664--the chief duty of the nuns being to offer prayers for the
conversion of England to Romanism! Disturbed at the Revolution, they
returned to their own land and the convent became a prison under the
Terror. At No. 28 of this old street we see vestiges of the chapel
cloisters.
Covering a large area in the east of this arrondissement is the hospice
known as La Salpétrière. In long-past days a powder magazine stood on
the site: traces of that old arsenal may still be seen in the hospital
wash-house. The foundation of the hospice dates from Louis XIII, as a
house for the reception of beggars. The present structure, the work of
the architect Vau, was built in the seventeenth century, destined for
the destitute and the mad. The fine chapel was built a few years later.
At the close of the century a woman’s prison was added, whither went
many of the Convulsionists of St. Médard (_see_ p. 150). Mme Lamotte
concerned in the _affaire du collier_ was shut up here. And in a scene
of the well-known operette Manon Lescaut is shown within its walls. In
September, 1792, the Revolutionary mob broke into the prison, slew the
criminals, opened the doors to the light women shut up there. We see
before us the “Cour des Massacres.” Then in 1883 la Salpétrière was
organized as the “Hospice de la Vieillesse-Femmes.” There are five
thousand beds. In 1908 the new hospital de la Pitié was built in its
grounds.
[Illustration: LA SALPÉTRIÈRE]