Maison des Jeunes Détenus - Vue Extérieure

The La Roquette Prisons (the Grande Roquette and the Petite Roquette) were prisons in the

11th arrondissement of Paris The 11th arrondissement of Paris (''XIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''onzième''. The arrondissement, called Popincourt, is situated on ...

, on both sides of the . Opened in 1830, they were finally closed in 1974. Today the site of la petite Roquette is occupied by , the largest square in the 11th arrondissement.

History

In 1826, under

Charles X Charles X (born Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Lou ...

, the decision was taken to build a prison for minor offenders aged 7 to 20 – the age of majority in France was then set at 21. The location is found not far from the Père-Lachaise cemetery, at 143, rue de la Roquette, on part of the grounds of the former convent of the Hospitalières de la Roquette, built in 1690 and closed during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

in 1789. It is the architect Hippolyte Lebas, creator of the

Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Notre Dame de Lorette (), also known as Ablain St.-Nazaire French Military Cemetery, is the world's largest French military cemetery. The same year,

Louis-Philippe I Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...

was alarmed by the increase in the number of prisoners in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, and in turn decided to build a prison in Paris (which already had no less than a dozen). The architect François-Christian Gau was then appointed to draw up the plans for the new prison, and submitted his project. It is simple: an enclosure wall surrounding a square building, itself pierced by a central courtyard. He shows his desire to differentiate himself from the prison for young offenders. The contrast will be all the more flagrant as the new remand center will be built on land facing the previous penitentiary centre. While the construction of the second prison (located at 164–168, rue de la Roquette) was underway, strong protests arose about the confinement of prisoners sentenced to death in these places. Indeed, since 1832, the guillotine has been transferred from the Place de Grève to the Arcueil barrier (or Saint-Jacques barrier, on the current location of the Saint-Jacques metro station), in the south of

, and the distance between La Roquette and the Saint-Jacques barrier is about 5 km. The journey is therefore very long between the place of detention and the place of execution. This second prison was inaugurated on 24 December 1836, and on the same day forty “salad baskets” transported 187 prisoners there, transferred from Bicêtre prison. The exact name of the new penitentiary is the “Convict Depot”. It is there, in fact, that future convicts will wait before their departure for the Ile de Ré, then for Cayenne or Nouméa. But it is also there that the prisoners condemned to death will stay. And to mark the difference between the two prisons so close, the Parisians give them a distinctive name: the rascals are housed in “la Petite Roquette”, the assassins in “la Grande Roquette”.

References

{{Reflist Defunct prisons in Paris 11th arrondissement of Paris 1830 establishments in France 1974 disestablishments in France