Place Saint-Michel

The Place Saint-Michel serves as a grand entrance to the Latin Quarter, but its current appearance is a product of nineteenth-century urban planning rather than medieval evolution. During the massive restructuring of Paris overseen by Baron Haussmann, this area was deliberately cleared and expanded to create a wide bridgehead for the new Pont Saint-Michel crossing the Seine. The project forced the convergence of four major streets into this single junction, transforming what was once a collection of tight, irregular passageways into the expansive, traffic-heavy square you see today.