Grand Châtelet

The Grand Châtelet features a massive stone fortress gatehouse that once commanded the northern end of the Pont au Change. For centuries, it served as the headquarters of the Paris police and held the city's primary prison in its damp, subterranean dungeons. During the eighteenth century, a butcher named Pierre-Joseph-Alexis Roussel famously broke out of these cells by bribing a guard with silver coins. Napoleon eventually ordered the entire fortress demolished in eighteen oh two, clearing space for the bustling square that replaced it.