For-l'Évêque

The For-l'Évêque occupies the corner of Rue Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois and Rue de l’Arbre-Sec, marked by the remnants of stone walls that once confined some of Paris’s most notorious prisoners. Originally the prison for the Bishop of Paris, it held debtors, coiners, and actors who fell out of favor with the Church. In seventeen seventy-five, a massive fire gutted the building, and the authorities finally closed its doors, leaving the stone foundations to be swallowed by the city’s later expansion.