Sainte-Pélagie Prison

Sainte-Pélagie Prison occupied the space between the Rue du Puits-de-l'Ermite and the Rue de la Clef. Its high, grim walls once held debtors alongside political prisoners like the writer Victor Hugo and the feminist Olympe de Gouges. Guards famously allowed prisoners to buy better food, wine, and even privacy from the outside. By the time the walls came down in eighteen ninety-nine, the prison functioned as a leaky sieve where money mattered more than the severity of the original sentence.