Square Jehan Rictus

Square Jehan Rictus sits on land that once served a very different civic purpose. From eighteen thirty-seven to eighteen eighty-two, the site was occupied by the town hall for the independent Commune of Montmartre. After that building was demolished, the area remained vacant until nineteen thirty-six, when it was finally transformed into this public garden. The square now bears the name of the poet Gabriel Randon, who wrote under the pseudonym Jehan Rictus and gained fame for his gritty, slang-filled verse documenting the bohemian life of Montmartre at the turn of the twentieth century.