Hôtel de Soissons

The Hôtel de Soissons stands apart because of a single stone column that rises alone from the pavement near the Bourse de Commerce. This fluted pillar is the last remnant of a sprawling palace built for Catherine de Medici in the fifteen seventies. She commissioned the residence to house her vast collection of astrological instruments and observation equipment. When the rest of the mansion fell to the wrecking ball in the eighteen hundreds, the city saved this column for its connection to her obsessions.