The Mazas Prison stands out as a sprawling, star-shaped building that once occupied the space near the Gare de Lyon. Its design featured six radiating wings extending from a central watchtower, allowing guards to observe every cell block from a single point. Built in eighteen fifty, it served as a short-stay facility for prisoners awaiting trial. The writer Paul Verlaine spent time locked in a cell here, where he spent his days scratching poems into the walls while waiting for his sentence.
Mazas Prison
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