Fires in the Paris Commune

The blackened stone ruins of the Cour des Comptes stand as a jagged skeleton in the center of Paris. During the final days of the Paris Commune in eighteen seventy-one, insurgents set fire to this grand administrative building to prevent the advancing French army from reclaiming it. Flames consumed the massive library and priceless archives, leaving behind empty arched windows and scorched facades that have remained unrepaired for over a century. A single rusted iron gate keeps visitors away from the hollowed interior.