TRACES OF A PRISON AND COUNTRYSIDE

THE TRADE ROUTE SHOULD HAVE STARTED AT THE RIVER,

BUT A FORTRESS THAT BECAME PRISON, TRIBUNAL,

MORGUE AND POLICE HEADQUARTERS GOT IN THE WAY

Place du Châtelet replaced the prison and took its name ("Little château").

The Grand Châtelet Seen from rue Saint-Denis by T.G.H. Hoffbauer / zoom

The 19th-century drawing is imagined, but based on the archives.

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Cross what was once the east-west trade route* to enter rue Saint-Denis. 

*Though built toward 1800, today's rue de Rivoli follows it more or less.

A neighborhood map shows transportation and services, but says nothing of the past...

...so use this one:

          Paris in the 11th Century / zoom  (please scroll down)  

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Walk toward the church that appears in the distance:   

The path leading to the edge of the early town had no distinguishing features, and the street has none now...

Fast-foods and shops with cheap wares align.

...but then come parallel streets that are two yards apart:

• The first, behind the signs, is just beyond the 11th-century wall.  

• The second gave the growing city extra space... 

...by being built (toward 1820) at the edge of the void which we approach:

The 16th-century fountain was placed on the edge of rue Saint-Denis to celebrate a royal entry, then transferred to the middle of the graveyard.

The cemetery of the Holy Innocents

was a site of death, commerce and conviviality.

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Next,

A cemetery that bewilders