Enclos Saint-Lazare on Turgot's 1739 map of Paris

Saint-Lazare Prison was a prison in the

10th arrondissement of Paris The 10th arrondissement of Paris (''Xe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''dixième'' ("10th arrondissement of Paris" = "dixième arrondisseme ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

History

Originally a

leprosarium A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East Af ...

was founded on the road from

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

to Saint-Denis at the boundary of the marshy area of the former River

Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...

bank in the 12th century. It was ceded on 7 January 1632 to St.

Vincent de Paul Vincent de Paul, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), commonly known as Saint Vincent de Paul, was a Occitan French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor. In 1622 Vincent was appointed a chaplain to the galleys. Afte ...

and the

Congregation of the Mission , logo = , image = Vincentians.png , abbreviation = CM , nickname = Vincentians, Paules, Lazarites, Lazarists, Lazarians , established = , founder = Vincent de Paul , fou ...

he had founded. At this stage, it became a place of detention for people who had become an embarrassment to their families: an enclosure for "

black sheep In the English language, black sheep is an idiom that describes a member of a group who is different from the rest, especially a family member who does not fit in. The term stems from sheep whose fleece is colored black rather than the more comm ...

" who had brought disgrace to their relatives. The prison was situated in the ''enclos Saint-Lazare'', the largest enclosure in Paris until the end of the 18th century, between the Rue de Paradis to its south, the

Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis The Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis is a street in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. It crosses the arrondissement from north to south, linking the Porte Saint-Denis to La Chapelle Métro station and passing the Gare du Nord. History The Rue du Fa ...

to its east, the

Boulevard de la Chapelle The boulevard de la Chapelle marks the border between the 10e arrondissement of Paris, 10e arrondissement and the 18e arrondissement of Paris, 18e arrondissement of Paris. It corresponds in part to the mur des Fermiers généraux, which, until 186 ...

to its north and the Rue Sainte-Anne to its west (today the Rue du Faubourg Poissonnière). Its site is now marked by the Church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. The building was converted to prison at the time of the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...

in 1793, then a women's prison in the early 19th century, its land having been seized and re-allotted little by little since the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

. It was largely demolished in 1935, with the

Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris Assistance is an act of helping behavior. Assistance may also refer to: Types of help * Aid, in international relations, a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another * Assistance dog, a dog trained to aid or assist a person ...

installing itself in the remaining buildings, where they remained until recently. Only the prison infirmary and chapel (built by

Louis-Pierre Baltard Louis-Pierre Baltard (9 July 1764 – 22 January 1846) was a French architect, and engraver and father of Victor Baltard. Life He was born in Paris. He was originally a landscape painter, but in his travels through Italy was struck with the bea ...

in 1834) remain of the prison, with the latter to be seen in the square Alban-Satragne (107, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis) in the 10th arrondissement. The surviving remains of the Saint-Lazare prison were inscribed on the supplementary inventory of historic monuments in November 2005. The

Musée de la Révolution française The Musée de la Révolution française (Museum of the French Revolution) is a departments of France, departmental museum in the French town of Vizille, south of Grenoble on the Route Napoléon. It is the only museum in the world dedicated to the ...

conserves a portrait of Joseph Cange, a prison officer at the Saint-Lazare prison during the

reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...

, who gave financial help to the family of a prisoner at the risk of his life and that was honoured nationally after the

fall of Robespierre The Coup d'état of 9 Thermidor or the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre refers to the series of events beginning with Maximilien Robespierre's address to the National Convention on 8 Thermidor Year II (26 July 1794), his arrest the next day, and ...

. A song by

Aristide Bruant Aristide Bruant (; 6 May 1851 – 11 February 1925) was a French cabaret singer, comedian, and nightclub owner. He is best known as the man in the red scarf and black cape featured on certain famous posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He ...

entitled "''À Saint-Lazare'' is named after the prison.

Famous prisoners

Pre-Revolution

Henri de Saint-Simon Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon (17 October 1760 – 19 May 1825), often referred to as Henri de Saint-Simon (), was a French political, economic and socialist theorist and businessman whose thought had a substantial influence on p ...

, French social theorist and one of the chief founders of Christian socialism Encyclopædia Britannica (2014) Henri de Saint-Simon, available online at http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/518228/Henri-de-Saint-Simon (accessed 17/01/2014) *

Pierre de Beaumarchais Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (; 24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799) was a French polymath. At various times in his life, he was a watchmaker, inventor, playwright, musician, diplomat, spy, publisher, horticulturist, arms dealer, satirist ...

, playwright

During the Revolution

François-Joseph Bélanger François-Joseph Bélanger (; 12 April 1744 – 1 May 1818) was a French architect and decorator working in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassic style. Life Born in Paris, Bélanger attended the Académie Royale d'Architecture (1764–1766) whe ...

, architect *

André Chénier André Marie Chénier (; 30 October 176225 July 1794) was a French poet of Greek and Franco-Levantine origin, associated with the events of the French Revolution of which he was a victim. His sensual, emotive poetry marks him as one of the precur ...

, poet *

Aimée de Coigny Aimée de Coigny (12 October 1769 – 17 January 1820) was a French noblewoman who was known as a great beauty and was imprisoned during the French Revolution. André Chénier's elegy ''la Jeune Captive'', published in 1795, was inspired by her or ...

(1769–1820), known as ''la Jeune Captive'' from her elegy by André Chénier *

Hubert Robert Hubert Robert (22 May 1733 – 15 April 1808) was a French painter in the school of Romanticism, noted especially for his landscape paintings and capricci, or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.Jean de Cayeux. ...

, painter *

Marquis de Sade Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814), was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer famous for his literary depictions of a libertine sexuality as well as numerous accusat ...

, writer and libertine *

Joseph-Benoît Suvée Joseph-Benoît Suvée (3 January 1743 – 9 February 1807) was a Flemish painter strongly influenced by French neo-classicism. Biography Suvée was born in Bruges. Initially a pupil of Matthias de Visch, he came to France aged 19 and bec ...

, painter * Charles-Louis Trudaine, conseiller au Parlement *

Jean-Antoine Roucher Jean-Antoine Roucher (February 22, 1745 - July 25, 1794), was a French poet. Roucher was born in Montpellier, the son of a tailor. His epithalamium on Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette won him the favour of Turgot, and a salt-tax collectorship. ...

, receveur des gabelles, poet, portrayed several times by

Thomas de Treil de Pardailhan Thomas-François de Treil de Pardailhan (1754, Paris – 2 August 1822, Pardailhan) was the eldest of an ennobled Languedocien family, originating in the Saint-Pons-de-Thomières region. At first an officer in the Maison Militaire du Roi, baron Th ...

, former baron and

député The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon Re ...

for Paris in the Legislative Assembly

Post-Revolution

Louise Michel Louise Michel (; 29 May 1830 – 9 January 1905) was a teacher and important figure in the Paris Commune. Following her penal transportation to New Caledonia she embraced anarchism. When returning to France she emerged as an important French a ...

communard The Communards () were members and supporters of the short-lived 1871 Paris Commune formed in the wake of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. After the suppression of the Commune by the French Army in May 1871, 43,000 Communards ...

Mata Hari Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod (née Zelle; 7 August 187615 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari (), was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. She was executed by ...

, spy * Léonie Biard, Victor Hugo's mistress Sources * Jacques Hillairet, Gibets, Piloris et Cachots du vieux Paris, éditions de Minuit, Paris, 1956 (). *
''Appel des dernières victimes de la terreur à la prison Saint-Lazare à Paris les 7-9 Thermidor an II''
by Charles-Louis Muller (1815–1892), painting held at the Musée national du

château de Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

Notes

External links

* {{Authority control Leper colonies Buildings and structures in the 10th arrondissement of Paris Saint-Lazare Congregation of the Mission Buildings and structures demolished in 1935 Hospitals in Paris