Did you ever imagine a Parisian street named Rue des Châteaux hiding a secret past? We stand now before Rue des Châteaux in the 14th arrondissement. Its name evokes grand castles but its history is more nuanced. Rue des Châteaux didn’t lead to a majestic castle. Instead it led to the Château du Maine. This wasn’t a royal palace. It was a hunting lodge. A more modest affair. The Château du Maine was built around 1730. It stood where numbers 124 to 146 now stand. The main entrance was at number 142. It had extensive grounds. These included parks and gardens. The grounds covered 30000 square meters.
The Château du Maine held a unique attraction. In 1821 Jean Léon Sanis created the first Géorama there. It was a panoramic painting. It depicted the whole of France. It also included Corsica Switzerland and a part of Belgium. A section of the Atlantic Ocean was included. This spectacle was housed in the chateau’s park. The Géorama was a popular attraction. It even charged an entrance fee of two francs. It closed in 1844 after a devastating fire.
The area around Rue des Châteaux had a complex past. It straddled the communes of Vaugirard and Montrouge. The boundary between them ran along what is now Rue Raymond-Losserand. Paris annexed these communes in 1860. Before that the northern part was known as Rue du Chemin-de-Fer. The southern part was called Rue du Château-du-Maine. These two sections merged into Rue des Châteaux.
The street has also played host to significant figures. Number 54 housed a creative colony. Surrealist artists gathered there. This included Jacques Prévert Yves Tanguy and Marcel Duhamel. Others like Pierre Prévert Benjamin Péret and Raymond Queneau visited. They met from 1924 to 1929. Number 114 was home to Olga Bancic a resistance fighter. A commemorative plaque honors her today. Emil Szittya a Hungarian writer and art critic lived at number 149. He lived there from 1945 until his death.
The Château du Maine itself met a different fate. It was demolished. It was bought in 1842 by a man named Couesnon. His son developed the park into the Plaisance district. In 1898 the Compagnie Générale des Omnibus bought the chateau. They demolished the chateau and its park. They built their depots and workshops there.
Rue des Châteaux is more than a street. It’s a living testament to Paris’ layered history. It’s a street where artistic fervor and resistance movements intersected. It’s a reminder of a hunting lodge and a pioneering panoramic display. Its past is as rich and multifaceted as the city it resides in. A legacy etched into every cobblestone.