The Rue Saint-Jacques () is a
street
A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...
in the
Latin Quarter
The Latin Quarter of Paris (, ) is an urban university campus in the 5th and the 6th arrondissements of Paris. It is situated on the left bank of the Seine, around the Sorbonne.
Known for its student life, lively atmosphere, and bistros, t ...
of
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
.
History
Formerly lying along the ''
cardo
A ''cardo'' (: ''cardines'') was a north–south street in Ancient Rome, ancient Roman cities and military castra, camps as an integral component of Urban planning, city planning. The ''cardo maximus'', or most often the ''cardo'', was the main ...
'' of Roman
Lutetia
Lutetia, ( , ; ) also known as and ( ; ; ), was a Gallo-Roman culture, Gallo–Roman town and the predecessor of modern-day Paris. Traces of an earlier Neolithic settlement () have been found nearby, and a larger settlement was established ...
, this street was a main axial road of
medieval Paris, as the buildings that still front it attest. It is the historic starting point, at no. 252, the
Église Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, for pilgrims leaving Paris to make their way along the ''
Chemin de Saint-Jacques'' that led eventually to
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela, simply Santiago, or Compostela, in the province of Province of A Coruña, A Coruña, is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city ...
(James, Jacques, Jacob, and Iago being names of the same saint in English, French, Latin, and Spanish, respectively). However, the introduction of the
Boulevard Saint-Michel
The Boulevard Saint-Michel () is one of the two major streets in the Latin Quarter of Paris, France, the other being the Boulevard Saint-Germain. It is a tree-lined boulevard which runs south from the Pont Saint-Michel on the Seine and Place ...
, constructed through this old quarter of Paris by
Baron Haussmann
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...
, relegated the roughly parallel Rue Saint-Jacques to a backstreet.
The Paris base of the
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...
was established in 1218 under the leadership of Pierre Seilhan (or Seila) in the Chapelle Saint-Jacques, close to the Porte Saint-Jacques, on this street; this is why the Dominicans were called ''Jacobins'' in Paris. Thus the street's name is indirectly responsible for the
Jacobin
The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential political cl ...
Club in the
French Revolution getting that name (being based in a former Jacobin monastery, itself located elsewhere).
Johann Heynlin
Johann Heynlin, variously spelled ''Heynlein'', ''Henelyn'', ''Henlin'', ''Hélin'', ''Hemlin'', ''Hegelin'', ''Steinlin''; and translated as ''Jean à Lapide'', ''Jean La Pierre (Lapierre, de la Pierre)'', ''Johannes Lapideus'', ''Johannes Lapid ...
and
Guillaume Fichet established the first
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...
in France, briefly at the
Sorbonne and then on this street, in the 1470s. The second printers in Paris were Peter Kayser and Johann Stohl at the sign of the Soleil d'Or in the Rue Saint-Jacques, from 1473. The proximity of the Sorbonne led many later booksellers and printers to set up shop here also.
Notable sites
* The
Sorbonne
* The
Lycée Louis-le-Grand
The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on Rue Saint-Jacques (Paris), rue Saint-Jacques in central Par ...
* The Institut de géographie of
Panthéon-Sorbonne University at 191 Rue Saint-Jacques
* No. 163bis: Le Port du Salut, an 18th-century inn, had a cabaret where many artistes made their debuts:
Guy Béart,
Barbara,
Georges Moustaki
Georges Moustaki (born Giuseppe Mustacchi; 3 May 1934 – 23 May 2013) was an Egyptian- French singer-songwriter of Greek-Jewish origin. He wrote about 300 songs for some of the most popular singers in France, including Édith Piaf, Dalida, Fran ...
,
Pierre Perret
Pierre Perret (born 9 July 1934 in Castelsarrasin, Tarn-et-Garonne) is a French singer and composer. He lives in Nangis, France.
Biography
Perret spent much of his childhood in a café which his parents owned, where he learned to use jargon ...
,
Jean Yanne
Jean Yanne (; born Jean Roger Gouyé ; 18 July 1933 – 23 May 2003) was a French actor, screenwriter, producer, director and composer. In 1972, he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film '' We Won't ...
,
Coluche
Michel Gérard Joseph Colucci (, ; 28 October 1944 – 19 June 1986), better known under his stage name Coluche (), was a French stage comedian, cinema actor, activist and philanthropist. He adopted ''Coluche'' as a stage name at age 26, when he ...
,
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg (; born Lucien Ginsburg; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer-songwriter, actor, composer, and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provocative rel ...
,
Boby Lapointe between 1955 and 1982.
* No. 195: Institut océanographique
* No. 252: the
Église Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, in the classical style, once a centre of
Jansenism
Jansenism was a 17th- and 18th-century Christian theology, theological movement within Roman Catholicism, primarily active in Kingdom of France, France, which arose as an attempt to reconcile the theological concepts of Free will in theology, f ...
, burial place of the astronomer
Cassini (built between 1670 and 1684 to the designs of Erard and of
Daniel Gittard).
[Huisman, G. & Poisson, G. (1966) ''Les Monuments de Paris''. Paris: Hachette; p. 210]
* No. 244: associated with
André Salmon
André Salmon (4 October 1881, Paris – 12 March 1969, Sanary-sur-Mer) was a French poet, art critic and writer. He was one of the early defenders of Cubism, with Guillaume Apollinaire and Maurice Raynal.
Biography
André Salmon was born i ...
and the revue ''Le Festin d'Esope'', founded by him and his friends ,
Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire (; ; born Kostrowicki; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist and art critic of Polish descent.
Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the early ...
and others.
* No. 284: previous location of the Carmelite convent, Faubourg Saint-Jacques, otherwise the Carmel de l'Incarnation (''
couvent des Carmélites du faubourg Saint-Jacques''), founded in 1603 and closed during the French Revolution, then demolished in 1797.
See also
*
2023 Paris explosion, which happened on the street
Notes
{{Authority control
Saint
In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...