Église Notre-Dame des Otages

The brick facade of Église Notre-Dame des Otages stands out on the Rue Haxo because of the carved stone cross embedded directly into its wall. This church occupies the site where fifty-two hostages were executed by a firing squad in eighteen seventy-one during the final days of the Paris Commune. Among those killed were ten priests and several Jesuit educators. The building serves as a memorial to their deaths, marking a spot where a desperate civil conflict ended in a grim, localized tragedy.