Barrière d'Enfer

The twin neoclassical buildings you see standing at Place Denfert-Rochereau are the remnants of the Barriere d’Enfer, a tax-collection gate constructed in seventeen eighty-seven. Architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux designed these pavilions as part of the Wall of the Farmers-General, a massive customs barrier built to enforce taxes on goods entering Paris. The name refers to the Rue d’Enfer, which sat at the gate’s terminus, though the name is likely a corruption of the Latin via inferior, referring to the lower elevation of this southern road rather than anything demonic. These structures were among the most detested symbols of royal authority, and they were the very first sites pillaged and set ablaze by Parisians during the uprisings of July seventeen eighty-nine.