Hôpital des Enfants-Trouvés

You are standing near what was once a site of profound historical change for the city, specifically where the rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine meets the area now occupied by Square Trousseau. This location served as one of the satellite establishments for the Hôpital des Enfants Trouvés, a network created in the seventeenth century to address the crisis of thousands of infants abandoned on the streets of Paris each year. The institution was founded in 1638 by the priest Vincent de Paul, who worked alongside a group of wealthy women known as the Dames de la Charité to provide a lifeline for newborns. Before this, abandoned children were often left to the mercy of the public or housed in temporary shelters near Notre-Dame that were entirely unequipped for the volume of arrivals. By establishing dedicated houses like the one that stood here in the faubourg, the organizers created a more formal, albeit desperate, system for those who had nowhere else to turn. Operating this facility required a massive logistical effort because the survival of an infant depended on finding a wet nurse immediately. Nuns managed the day-to-day intake, but they relied on a network of foster families in the countryside to take in the children once they were weaned. Despite these efforts, the mortality rates in such institutions were staggeringly high, making the daily operation of these buildings a grim reflection of the social struggles of the era.