Pension Belhomme

The Pension Belhomme occupies a narrow, unremarkable building on the Rue de Charonne. In the eighteenth century, Jacques Belhomme transformed this site into a private asylum for the wealthy. During the Terror, it became a strategic escape for aristocrats. Belhomme accepted prisoners for high fees, effectively hiding them in plain sight while claiming they were mentally ill to keep them away from the guillotine. He grew rich on the survival of his guests, juggling royalists and revolutionaries until he faced his own arrest.