La Santé Prison

La Santé Prison stands as a somber landmark in the fourteenth arrondissement, serving as the last operating prison within the city limits of Paris. Designed by architect Joseph Auguste Émile Vaudremer and inaugurated in eighteen sixty-seven, the facility was built on the site of a former coal market. Its name, La Santé, actually derives simply from the street it sits upon, the Rue de la Santé. This site has functioned as a place of detention for over a century and a half, housing everyone from common criminals to infamous figures, all kept behind its high, fortress-like walls.