Saint-Eustache, Paris

The Church of Saint-Eustache sits in the heart of Paris with a history tied to a peculiar financial arrangement from the thirteenth century. A local fish merchant named Jean Alais once lent a massive sum of money to King Philippe-Auguste. As repayment, the King granted him the right to collect a tax on all baskets of fish entering the city markets. Alais used a portion of this fish-tax fortune to fund the original chapel on this site, which eventually evolved into the massive structure you see today.