Jardin de la Cité Administrative

The Jardin de la Cité Administrative sits inside a concrete basin, sunk below the street level of the surrounding office district. This sunken garden marks the footprint of the former Saint-Jean Hospital, which occupied this site for centuries. When city planners demolished the hospital in the nineteen sixties to make room for high-rise government towers, they left this hollow space for greenery. Today, moss grows over the surviving limestone fragments of the old hospital walls, tucked between the modern steel columns.