The Conciergerie was part of the former royal palace, the Palais de la Cité, now known as the Palais de Justice, which is still used for judicial purposes. From the 10th to the 14th centuries it was the throne of the medieval kings of France. The concierge, or keeper of the royal palace, gave the place its eventual name.
On the northwest corner of the palace/Conciergerie is a rectangular lookout tower, called “the clock tower,” because the country’s first public clock was installed there. This photo was taken from the Place du Chatelet, just across the Seine River.
The three round towers are named: la tour Cesar (The Caesar Tower) in remembrance of the Roman presence; la tour d'Argent (The Silver Tower), which alludes to the royal treasury, which was kept there; et la tour Bonbec (the crenelated, Good Beak Tower), which housed a torture chamber, where victims were coerced to “sing.”
The original clock was replaced in 1585 by the clock face and additional sculptures of Germain Pilon. The sculpture on the right represents Justice and the other Law. Pilon was a French Renaissance sculptor who was responsible for the funerary monuments of King Francois I and King Henri II (truly stunning) in the Saint-Denis Basilica.
An apt Latin inscription was added to the clock during its restoration:
MACHINA QUÆ BIS SEX TAM JUSTE DIVIDIT HORAS JUSTITIAM SERVARE MONET LEGES QUE TUERI
“This machine, which divides time into twelve just parts, helps us to protect justice and defend the law”
Entrance to the Conciergerie
The Conciergerie and Sainte-Chapelle are often visited together, as they are within the same complex of buildings.
Conciergerie poster
The "Grand Salle" (Great Hall) was one of the largest in Europe, and its lower story, known as "La Salle des Gens d'Armes" (The Hall of the Soldiers) survives: 210 feet long, 90 feet wide and 28 feet high. It was used as a dining-room for the 2,000 staff members who worked in the palace. It was heated with four large fireplaces and lit by many windows, now blocked up. It was also used for royal banquets and judicial proceedings.
The Great Hall
The hall is not brightly lit, but the size is so imposing and the Gothic columns so huge that I felt its size was overwhelming.
In the Great Hall, looking back at the entry
The massive pillars in the Great Hall
Standing in one of the 4 fireplaces and looking straight up toward the chimney
Video viewing corner
A video gives the history of the Conciergerie with special reference to its role during the Reign of Terror.
Marble table placard
Fragment of the black marble table used during the sumptuous receptions held by the monarchy
A bas-relief, featuring cornucopias and a snake-haired Medusa
Behind the arched grates is the Conciergerie gift shop.
A gift shop in a former prison
You must pass through the gift shop in order to continue the tour.
An unflattering portrait of a very simply-dressed Marie-Antoinette, about to stand trial for being an enemy of the Revolution
Busts of Robespierre
Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) was a lawyer and politician and one of the best known and influential figures of the French Revolution. As a deputy representing the far left in Parliament, he attacked the monarchy and advocated for democratic reforms.
Placard Maximilien Robespierre spent his last moments in these surroundings.
Thermidor 10, Year 2 = July 28, 1794, when Robespierre was guillotined
“I leave you my memory. It will be dear to you, and you will defend it.”
Note: The Revolutionary Calendar began on the first day of the first year that the Republic had been proclaimed. Months were renamed according to nature: Thermidor (July) was “heat.”
A genuine guillotine blade used on a famous criminal, Lacenaire
Lacenaire committed a double murder, and Dostoyevsky may have used some of the circumstances of Lacenaire’s crime in his book,
Crime and Punishment. Lacenaire was quite the self-promoter, which is why he was widely known in Europe.
An etching of the Conciergerie in 1790
The Conciergerie and the Reign of Terror
In 1391 part of the building was converted for use as a prison. The treatment of its prisoners depended on their wealth, status and connections. The very wealthy or influential usually got their own cells with a bed, desk and materials for reading and writing. Less well-off prisoners paid for simply furnished cells called pistoles, which were equipped with a rough bed and perhaps a table. The poorest, known as the pailleux from the hay (paille) that they slept on, would be confined to dark, damp, vermin-infested cells called oubliettes ("forgotten places").
The French Revolution began as the culmination of a “Perfect Storm” of circumstances. Unfair taxation, social inequality, government debt, warfare with Austria and Prussia and famine conditions all precipitated the revolt against the monarchy. Extreme radical revolutionaries ruled France in 1793-94. The Law of Suspects on September 17, 1793, declared that anyone considered a counterrevolutionary or enemy of the republic was guilty of treason, and thus condemned to death. The accused were given no opportunity to defend themselves. The Revolutionary Tribunal sent nearly 2,600 prisoners to the guillotine. The nobility and clergy, who had always received deference in taxation matters, were especially despised by the revolutionaries.
Despite lasting only ten months, during the Reign of Terror (September 1793-July 1794), more than 40,000 people died from execution and imprisonment. The Conciergerie prison, also known as the "antechamber to the guillotine," became the central penitentiary of a network of prisons throughout Paris, and was the final stop of over 2,700 people who were summarily executed by guillotine. Prisoners were guillotined every day by “Monsieur de Paris,” as all executioners were called, and the guillotine was dubbed the "National Razor," as the patriotic instrument of execution. The quality of life of the prisoners while in the prison was based mainly on their personal wealth, as it had been in the past.
The small royal chapel was called the “Chapel of the Girondists” after 21 Girondist deputies were imprisoned there on the nights of October 29 and 30, 1793. The Girondists were a political faction fundamentally opposed to the monarchy, but less fanatical in their desire to overthrow the monarchy. The Montagnards, the Girondists’ main opposition, proved to be ferocious men of action rather than theorists and radical thinkers. The Girondists were accused of being traitors and enemies of their country
The Altar in the Chapel, with the wall draped in black hangings, a traditional sign of mourning
The Chapel with the Crucifixion and a confessional
A painting of Christ on the cross in the Chapel
“The Last Banquet of the Girondins”
On the eve of their execution, the Girondists organized a banquet, a scene which has inspired more than one painting titled, “The Last Banquet of the Girondins.” Felix Philippoteaux painted this scene in 1850, in which one of the Girondins had committed suicide rather than face the guillotine. On October 31, they were executed by guillotine. “It took 36 minutes to cut off 22 heads.” (I don’t know who the 22nd one was.) Their execution was the beginning of the Reign of Terror.
Expiatory Chapel of Marie Antoinette (expiatory = offered in atonement)
Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793), Queen of France, spent the final two months of her life in this prison, before her execution on October 16th, 1793. The actual cell was transformed in 1816 into a “chapelle expiatoire,” consisting of a very small room painted entirely in dark blue, a colored glass window reminiscent of church windows, a cenotaph on one side of the room, and an altar on the other. The queen appears in paintings representing events of her last days.
A stele (a stone slab bearing an inscription for a commemorative purpose) in honor of Louis XVI in the Expiatory Chapel
A stele in honor of Louis XVI’s royalist sister, Princess Elisabeth (1764–94), who also went to the guillotine.
Marie Antoinette Cenotaph in the Expiatory Chapel (A cenotaph is a marker for a person whose body is buried elsewhere. In Marie Antoinette’s case, her remains will probably never be identified definitively.) The cenotaph reads:
On this site, Marie Antoinette, Jeanne of Austria, the widow of Louis XVI, after the death of her husband and the removal of her children, was thrown into prison, where she remained for seventy-six days in anxiety, mourning, and abandon. But strengthened by her courage, she showed herself to be, in chains as she was on the throne, greater than her fortune. Condemned to death by criminals, awaiting her death, she wrote an eternal monument to piety, courage, and all the virtues on 16 October 1793. All who come here, adore, admire and pray.
That my son never forget the last words of his father, which he repeated explicitly for him, that he never try to avenge our death. I pardon all of my enemies for the ills they have done to me.
Painting of Marie Antoinette above the altar in the Expiatory Chapel, “La Reine dans son Cachot” (The Queen in her Cell) by Gervais Simon, against a wall covered with silver tears
Marie-Antoinette, seen from behind, is shown sitting in a cell at a small wooden desk, guarded by a member of the National Guard. This scene is a reconstruction of the cell in which the queen was imprisoned.
The bed in Marie-Antoinette’s cell
The Women’s Courtyard, surrounded by two floors of prisoners’ cells.
The women were able to wash clothes in a fountain that still exists in the courtyard. The “Corner of the Twelve” is visible in the background on the left. Prisoners were held here in groups of twelve and allowed to say their good-byes through the grate before being taken in a cart to the guillotine.
“The Guillotined of the Revolution. A detailed list of the 2,780 people condemned to death in Paris.”
The names of each person detained in the Conciergerie were inscribed on a register.
The various categories of prisoners are shown by a series of cells.
A desk in the wealthy/influential person’s cell
A bed in the cell of a wealthy person
A “pistole” for less well-off prisoners
An “oubliette” for the poorest prisoners (payeux), who had only hay to sleep on
The Thermidorian Reaction
The Reign of Terror ended in July 1794 with the "Thermidorian Reaction." By June 1794 France had become weary of the ever-increasing executions (1,300 in June alone.) The Thermidorian Reaction was a parliamentary revolt initiated on 9 Thermidor, year II (July 27, 1794), which resulted in the fall of the leading advocate of the Terror, Maximilien Robespierre, and the collapse of revolutionary fervor. It was a revolt against the excesses of the Reign of Terror and was triggered by a vote of the National Convention to execute Robespierre and other leading members of the Terror. Thus ended the most radical phase of the French Revolution.
The Conciergerie was decommissioned in 1914 and was opened to the public as a national historical monument. It is today a popular tourist attraction, although only a relatively small part of the building is open to public access; much of it is still used for the Paris law courts. There is a reduced rate if you buy tickets for the Conciergerie and Sainte-Chapelle together. (12.5 euros) It costs 8.5 euros each if you visit only one. It doesn’t take long to visit them both.
The Conciergerie resonates with events in French history that changed the course of the country forever. Being in the actual place where so many history-making events occurred, as somber as many of them were, was a little eerie but worthwhile all the same. What was really scary was that the Reign of Terror was carried out by those in law-making positions and under the guise of patriotism. The revolutionaries were duly-elected officials and, as karma would have it, were ultimately executed by other duly-elected officials adhering to the same set of rules as the revolutionaries had followed when they were in power.
