Parc des Buttes-Chaumont

The land beneath your feet has a history as grim as its current landscape is beautiful. Before it became a lush public garden, this area was known as the site of the Gibbet of Montfaucon. From the thirteenth century until seventeen sixty, the French monarchy used this spot to hang criminals and display their bodies to the public as a grisly warning. After the gibbet was dismantled, the site served as a refuse dump for the city, even becoming a disposal ground for sewage and horse carcasses.