Caretaker\'s lodge

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The Conciergerie is old the Palais of the City which was the residence and the seat of the capacity of the kings de France, of. Nowadays, the building skirts the quay of the Clock, on the Île of the City, in the I {{er}} district of Paris. It was converted into prison of State in 1392, after the abandonment of the palate by Charles V and its successors.

The prison occupied the ground floor of the building bordering the quay of the Clock and the two turns; the upper floor was reserved for the Parliament. The prison of the Caretaker's lodge was regarded during the Terreur as the anteroom of death. Little left there free. The queen Marie-Antoinette was imprisoned there in 1793.

Origin of the word Caretaker's lodge

The Caretaker's lodge indicates initially the housing of the caretaker, then by extension the prison in which it maintained his prisoners. The caretaker was charged with the keys of the royal palace and the candles (candles) of lighting.

History: Palate of the City to the Caretaker's lodge

The palate of the City was the residence of the counts de Paris. This palate was inhabited by the king Eudes Ier de France. Hugues Capet establishes in the palate Curia Régis (the royal Council) and various services of its administration. Robert II of France made it rebuild.

Saint-Louis

Saint-Louis made build the the Ste Chapelle between 1242 and 1248. In north the palate of Saint-Louis united the Seine only by one building named " Room on the eau" and flanked Bombec tower (or Chatterbox) which owes its name with the fact that was the room there where the " was practiced; question" (torture) which made acknowledge the torture victims.

Philippe IV

Philippe IV of France made rebuild the palate. Work was completed in 1313 pennies the impulse of Enguerrand de Marigny. Enclaves then parcelled out the royal ground, and Philippe IV of France expropria the occupants. It made build an enclosure (more decorative than utility) which bordered the Seine and which reinforced the turns always existing known as " turn of Argent" (allusion to the royal treasure which there had been kept) and the " César" turn; (thus named in remembering the presence of the Romans and had with the fact that the tower is built on Roman foundations). Vast rooms were built in the north and the south of the palate of the City.

The room of the Guards

The room of the Guards was built about 1310 and was used as anteroom at the ground floor of Grand' Salle.

Grand' Room

The Large-Room was the part where the king held his " beds of justice" and in which the receptions took place. The meals were been used on the table as black marble (of which there remains a vestige with the Caretaker's lodge).

It was an immense room supported by a file of pillars which separated it in two naves covered from panelled cradles. Walls and pillars were decorated statues representing each king de France.

The room of the Men-at-arms

This room is exceptional (the largest vestige of medieval civil room of Europe): long, broad and high to the key, it 64 meters 27,5 8,5 meters meters was built in 1302 and 1313 by Enguerrand de Marigny. It was used as refectory to the very many personnel (approximately 2.000 people) employees with the service of the king.

The frontage Is, giving on the street of Barillerie (absorptive since by the boulevard of the Palate) was also reorganized and supplemented. Side of the west (in direction of the current point of Green-Gallant), one drew the gardens. Behind the orchard and the garden, one rebuilt the housing of the king. Philippe IV made build the housing of the " concierge".

Jean II

About 1350, Jean II of France made build with the angle of the palate of the City the square house of the kitchens which was intended for the " commun" hotel of the king. The four western spans of the room of the Men-at-arms were isolated from the remainder of the room by grids and a wall.

Turn of the Clock

Jean II made build a tower with the north-eastern angle of the palate of the City. This rectangular tower of guet was named turn of the Clock because the first public clock of France was installed there. This clock was replaced in 1585 by that of Germain Pilon, always in place.

In 1358, Etienne Marcel, provost of the merchants of Paris, made assassinate advisers of Jean II, under the eyes of his son, the future Charles V.

Charles V

Charles V of France decided to leave the Palate of the City for the hotel Saint-pol.; it there maintained its administration (Parliament, Chambre of the Accounts, Chancellerie) and named a caretaker. With the Middle Ages, the Caretaker's lodge constitutes the prison of the palate then. At this point in time the history begins from the prison of the Caretaker's lodge.

Charles VII

Charles VII of France installed the Parliament of Paris there.

Louis XVI

Louis XVI of France made there build new buildings.

The Caretaker's lodge under the Revolution

It was under the Revolution that the Caretaker's lodge lived its most tragic hours. For this time, the building has become the true symbol of Terror.

April 6th, 1793, the revolutionary Tribunal had settled on the first floor, in the old large-room of the Parliament of Paris. The public prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville, had arranged its offices on the same floor, between the turns of César and Money. Consequently, all the prisoners who were held in different the Prisons from Paris, like in certain prisons of province, and which was to appear before the court, were gradually transferred to the Caretaker's lodge. Their number did not cease increasing, especially after the vote of the Loi of the suspects of September 17th.

" The anteroom of the mort"

The prisoners who had appeared before the revolutionary Tribunal and had been condemned to died were not brought back in their dungeon. They were immediately separated from the other prisoners and conduits, for the men in the back-Clerc's Office, the women in small cells located in the central corridor. As soon as the executor and his assistances arrived, all were gathered in the hall baptized room of the toilet to be there stripped their personal effects, mowed and attached. Framed by gendarmes, condemned - sometimes several tens - crossed the room of the counter and gained the court of May, giving on the street of Barillerie (which was with the site of the current boulevard of the Palate). It is there that the carts awaited them which were to lead them to the Guillotine.

It is thus with the Caretaker's lodge that thousands of prisoners lived their last moments. Among them, one will retain Marie-Antoinette of Austria, Charlotte Corday, Manon Roland, the Girondins, Philippe of Orleans, the Comtesse of Barry, Georges-Jacques Danton, Christian-Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, Antoine Lavoisier, Elisabeth de France and Maximilien Robespierre.

Principal parts of the prison

The room of the Guards

In the past refectory of the Palate, it was reserved for the prison of the men and summarily compartmentalized in dungeons. In front of the surge of the prisoners, it was divided by a floor installed with middle height, making it possible to thus arrange two superimposed rooms.

It is above the room of the Guards, on the first floor, in the old large-room of the Parliament of Paris, which the revolutionary Tribunal sat.

The street of Paris

What one baptized the street of Paris , it, was also annexed to the prison of the men and this fact compartmentalized into tiny cells. Those of the " pailleux" were reserved to the prisoners without resources; those of the " pistoles" were rented with the most fortunate prisoners.

The Large Courtyard

It was about the old garden of the king, for which a vast rectangular court had substituted itself. This one was surrounded by a gallery compartmentalized in dungeons for the men.

The central corridor

Dark and narrow, it distributed on its course of many parts: the room of the counter, the office of the caretaker, grafts it, the back-Clerc's Office, the visiting room, a part of rest for the counter clerks, the infirmary, the vault, some cells for women…

Court of the Women

Old garden bordering the home of the king, this court was the place of walk of the women. It was surrounded by cells whose comfort varied according to the pecuniary possibilities of held. In this court, the women washed their linen with a fountain (today still existing); on one of the stone tables, they took their meal. The place was, in the revolutionary cellular life, an important place for the social life of the prisoners. In a corner remains what was the " side of Douze" : a triangular enclosure separated by a grid from the court of the women, and which depended on the district of the men. Pathetic grid if it is in these hours of tragedy, separating from the beings which were cherished, while pemettant a relative bringing together.

The office of the clerk

He was reconstituted in the museum of the Caretaker's lodge. It was there that one registered, as of their arrival, the names of the prisoners on the registers. This part became the refreshment bar of the Law courts.

The room of the toilet

At this place, condemned to death their personal objects with the profit of the State were stripped: jewels, snuffboxes, glasses, watches… Each one of them had then sat on a stool, had the hand tieds behind the back, then the collar of its shirt was indented in order to have the hair cut to the short-nap cloth of the nape of the neck. Condemned were then escorted to the court of May, where the carts waited which were to lead them on their place of execution.

The small royal vault

Said " Vault of Girondins" , existed already with the Middle Ages. The tradition locates at it the place in which the blackjacks Girondins awaited death in the night from October 29th to 30th 1793.

The first cell of Marie-Antoinette

The first cell of Marie-Antoinette of Austria was installed in the old room of meeting of the counter clerks (a wet cell made up of a bed of strap, of an armchair in cane, two chairs and a table) giving on the court of the women by a narrow window. After an escape bid (see Alexandre Gonsse de Rougeville), Marie-Antoinette was transferred in the second cell. (The reconstitution of the cell of the queen was made for a half on the authentic cell and for other half on the contiguous span in the east). A folding screen separated it from the gendarmes, ensuring his monitoring.

The second cell of Marie-Antoinette

Located beside the small royal vault. Louis XVIII of France made set up at the place even cell of the queen, who was cut by a wall, a vault. The western half was joined together with the vault by a room where the tradition locates the last hours of Maximilien de Robespierre.

After the Revolution

At the 19th century, were held with the Caretaker's lodge of the famous prisoners such as: Georges Cadoudal, Michel Ney, prince Napoleon Bonaparte (future Napoleon III) and the anarchists Felice Orsini and Ravachol.

The Caretaker's lodge keeps this prison function throughout the 19th century and its appropriation with the cellular mode is authorized by decree of May 15th, 1855 during the renovation work of the cells by Louis-Joseph Duc. The monument loses its statute of prison in 1914, it is classified historic building, it is opened with the public. The name of Caretaker's lodge then indicates at the same time part of the district of detention, i.e. the prison of the women, and the whole of the Gothic rooms, namely the room of the men-at-arms, the Street of Paris, the room of the guards and the kitchens. Thus, the name of Caretaker's lodge indicates different realities during the centuries but it practically has a penitentiary origin since its creation.

Part of the named Caretaker's lodge Dépôt from abroad is used for this purpose, with 3, quai de l'Horloge, 75001 Paris. It is a Retention center administrative. It was a question of closing this site, but at July 12th, 2007, it is still not the case.

Law courts

The Law courts, located in Ier district of Paris, was the seat of the revolutionary Tribunal from April 6th, 1793 to May 31st, 1795. Certain buildings of the palate of the City were in this place. In 1776, a fire consumed the part extending between the Caretaker's lodge and the Holy Vault. The frontage which dominates the Court of May, of all the main entrance of the Palate, was rebuilt between 1783 and 1786.

The Law courts take a new political dimension and social under the Restoration. Indeed, since Louis XVIII and Charles X, the legal debate disputes the preference with the parliamentary debate. New stations are created but the buildings are not enough any more to accommodate the volume growing of the businesses. It is at this time that the very first the work of restoration is undertaken with the Palate. The legal affairs not ceasing increasing, the Monarchy of July launches a vast program of enlarging of the Palate. Jean-Nicolas Huyot is charged to write a project of enlarging and insulation in order to make a majestic building of it. In 1840, Duke and Dommey, following the death of Huyot, are named to conclude this project. Louis-Philippe will however not see the completion of the Palate, because of the Revolution of 1848. It is under Napoleon III that work will find their rate/rhythm of cruising.

Work is almost completed when the events of 1870 burst. Lit in various places of the Law courts by the failing Commune, the fire of May 24th, 1871 reduced to nothing almost a quarter century of work. Consequently, all is to be started again. Daumet is named architect of the Palate after the death of Duke in 1879. The plans are remade and work starts again in 1883. The Caretaker's lodge nevertheless is completed on this date. Since 1914, the Palate did not know work of such a scale.

The caretaker's lodge is visited. It shelters exposures punctually. One finds there also a reconstitution of the revolutionary jails of the cells to strawy, with Pistole and that of Marie-Antoinette, the blade of the guillotine which was used with the execution as Lacenaire.

One finds a witness of the Crue of 1910 approximately 1 meter from height of the room giving access to the money turns and César.

The monument is managed by the Center of the national Monuments.

External bond

Official site on monum.fr

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