The Rue Saint-Denis () is one of the oldest streets in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Its route was first laid out in the 1st century by the Romans, and then extended to the north in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. From the Middle Ages to the present day, the street has been notorious as a place of

prostitution Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...

. Its name derives from it being the historic route to Saint-Denis. The street extends as far as the 1st arrondissement and the Rue de Rivoli to the south and as far as the 2nd arrondissement and the Boulevard Saint-Denis to the north. It runs parallel to the Boulevard de Sébastopol.

History

The ancient Roman route (Flanders road) leading to Saint-Denis,

Pontoise Pontoise () is a commune north of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the "new town" of Cergy-Pontoise. Administration Pontoise is the official (capital) of the Val-d'Oise '' département'', although in reality the ' ...

and

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

competed with the Route de Senlis ( Rue Saint-Martin) but gained an advantage over it with the demolition of the Grand Pont (see Pont au Change) and the development of the royal

Abbey of Saint-Denis The Basilica of Saint-Denis (, now formally known as the ) is a large former medieval abbey church and present cathedral in the commune of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. The building is of singular importance historically and archite ...

, becoming the triumphal way for royal entries into the capital. Flanked by houses from 1134 onward, the street has borne the alternative names of Sellerie de Paris and Sellerie de la Grande Rue (13th century), Grand'rue de Paris, Grande rue, Rue des Saints Innocents, and Grande chaussée de Monsieur/Monseigneur Saint-Denis (14th century). During the French Revolution, it was known as the Rue de Franciade. The street was one of the centres of the

June Rebellion The June Rebellion, also called the Paris Uprising of 1832 (), was an anti-monarchist insurrection of Parisian republicans on 5 and 6 June 1832. The rebellion originated in an attempt by republicans to reverse the establishment in 1830 of t ...

of 1832, immortalised in

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

's novel ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' (, ) is a 19th-century French literature, French Epic (genre), epic historical fiction, historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. '' ...

'', and which is referred to in the book as the "Epic of the Rue Saint-Denis". The street contains clothes shops, bars and restaurants, the church of Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles, a bank, and the Chambre des notaires building.

Prostitution

For many decades, the Rue Saint-Denis and its surrounding neighborhood were famous for the

trade that took place there.
Not Wanted on the Rue Saint-Denis by Mathilde Caro

Sex shop A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products. An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in Par ...

s also were situated between the Rue Réaumur and the Boulevard Saint-Denis.

Famous buildings

* No. 60 (corner of the Rue de la Cossonnerie): Remains of the ''Cour Batave'', a collection of buildings constructed for Dutch speculators by Jean-Nicolas Sobre and Célestin-Joseph Happe in 1790, one of Paris's first examples of private housing development. * No. 92 : Église Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles * No. 142 (corner of the Rue Grénéta): House built in 1732 by Jacques-Richard Cochois for Claude Aubry. Attached to it is the "Fontaine Greneta", rebuilt at the same time as the house, but whose original dates back to at least 1502. * Nos. 224–226: Maison des Dames de Saint-Chaumont (Couvent des Filles de l'Union chrétienne), established in 1685 in a Hôtel de Saint-Chaumond, of which nothing survives except its name in the name of the community. The nuns had constructed 1734–1735 by Jacques Hardouin-Mansart de Sagonne a lodge which has been conserved (but raised up), a building of exceptional quality decorated by Nicolas Pineau. It is the only survivor of the many pious or charitable establishments built along the Rue Saint-Denis. Its simple entrance is next to the Boulevard de Sébastopol and a garden extends between the building and the street. In the corner of the Rue de Tracy could be found the convent's

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

, built in 1782 by Pierre Convers in the ancient style but now lost. * At the end of the Rue Saint-Denis, at the

intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their ...

of the

Grands Boulevards The ''grands boulevards'' The ''Grands Boulevards'' are the quintessence of the Parisian boulevards. Their origin is a plan initiated by Louis XIV's minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert in the late 1660s, of comprehensive reforms and remodeling ...

, can be found the Porte Saint-Denis. The Rue Saint-Denis then extends out into what was medieval Paris's

faubourg "Faubourg" () is an ancient French term historically equivalent to "fore-town" (now often termed suburb or ). The earliest form is , derived from Latin , 'out of', and Vulgar Latin (originally Germanic) , 'town' or 'fortress'. Traditionally, t ...

by the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis

References

External links

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Raid November 18th, 2015
{{Visitor attractions in Paris Saint-Denis Saint-Denis Roman Paris Red-light districts in France