Fontaine Saint-Michel

The Fontaine Saint-Michel stands as a massive, twenty-six-meter-tall facade built directly against the side of a six-story apartment building. It was constructed between eighteen fifty-eight and eighteen sixty as part of the radical transformation of Paris overseen by Baron Haussmann. You are looking at a rare example of a monumental wall fountain, designed to mask the blank gable of a building that authorities at the time deemed an eyesore. Its location marks a historic transition point between the narrow, medieval streets of the Latin Quarter and the wider, grand boulevards of the new city.