Rue de la Roquette

Gazing down Rue de la Roquette today, it’s hard to imagine the ghosts that linger here. Rue de la Roquette stretches from the Place de la Bastille to the Père Lachaise Cemetery. This seemingly ordinary Parisian street holds a captivating, and sometimes dark, history. Rue de la Roquette wasn’t always the bustling thoroughfare we see today. In the 15th century, the area was a wasteland, dotted with the small yellow flowers that gave the street its name, “roquette.” The convent of the Hospitalières de la Roquette, established in 1636, adopted the name, solidifying it in the city’s history. Wealthy Parisians, drawn by the area’s proximity to the city center, began building homes here. One can almost picture Germain Teste, a city official, constructing one of the first grand houses around 1545. Later, the area housed notable figures like Nicolas Séguier, secretary to the King, and Florimont Robertet, treasurer of France. The street even makes a cameo in Alexandre Dumas’s “The Forty-Five,” where it’s referred to as “Bel-Esbat.” But Rue de la Roquette also harbors a darker past. Two prisons, La Grande Roquette and La Petite Roquette, once stood on opposite sides of the street. The granite stones embedded in the road bear witness to a grim history. They once served as the base for the guillotine, where sixty-nine people were executed. La Grande Roquette was demolished in 1900, but La Petite Roquette, later a women’s prison, remained until 1974. Today, a square occupies its former site. The street continued to evolve, even housing the 11th arrondissement’s town hall from 1860 to 1865 before it moved to Place Voltaire. Today, walking down Rue de la Roquette is a journey through time. You’ll pass the Passage du Cheval-Blanc, once a timber yard, and now home to the rock radio station Oui FM. At number 17, imagine the poet Paul Verlaine penning “Les Poètes Maudits” in his fifth-floor apartment. The modern Église Notre-Dame-d’Espérance stands in stark contrast to the area’s darker past. Near the end, the square at number 143 offers a peaceful respite, a poignant reminder of the prison that once stood there. Rue de la Roquette is more than just a street; it’s a microcosm of Parisian history, where beauty and tragedy intertwine.