Conciergerie
The Conciergerie is a former courthouse and prison in Paris, France located on the west of the Île de la Cité below the Palais de Justice. It was originally part of the former royal palace, the Palais de la Cité, which also included the Sainte-Chapelle. Two large medieval halls remain from the royal palace. During the French Revolution, 2,781 prisoners, including Marie Antoinette, were imprisoned, tried and sentenced at the Conciergerie then sent to different sites to be executed by the guillotine. It’s now a national monument and museum.
Gallo-Roman fortress to Royal Palace (1st–10th century)
In the 1st–3rd century AD, the Ile de la Cité became part of the Gallo-Roman city of Lutetia, on the opposite bank of the Seine. The island was surrounded by a wall, and a fortress of the Roman governor was built at the west end of the island. The Merovingian King Clovis installed his capital there, on the site of the Roman fortress, from 508 until his death in 511. The Carolingian monarchs moved their capital out of the city, but at the end of the 10th century, under Hugh Capet, Paris became the capital of the Kingdom of France. He constructed a large new fortified residence, the Palais de la Cité, on the same site.Capetian Palace (11th–14th century)
From the 11th–14th century, the palace was enlarged and embellished, and gained in importance in the administration of the kingdom. Before he departed on the Third Crusade, Philip II of France delegated his legal authority the Curia Regis, which had regular assemblies, called Parlements, in the Hall of the King, to dispense justice. He moved the royal archives to the building, giving it even greater importance, and named a Concierge, or custodian, to oversee the administration of the palace, which gave the building its name. Philip II created the towered façade on the Seine river side and the great hall. The great hall, with its two side-by-side naves, was used for royal ceremonies and judicial sessions. At one end was an immense table of black marble from Germany, decorated with fleurs-de-lis emblems. A piece of the table is now displayed on the wall of the lower hall. The hall was also decorated with polychrome wooden statues of the kings of France. The "Grand Chronicles of France" by Jehan de Jandun described "A new palace, a marvelous and costly work, the most beautiful that France has ever seen." The only surviving portions of the great hall are the Hall of the Men-at-arms and the Hall of the Guards below.Philip IV continued the rebuilding between 1285 and 1314. The Grand Hall was built, replacing a smaller earlier hall. The Grand Chamber became the official seat of the Parliament; and he added the silver tower and the Tower of Caesar.
Under Charles V, the role of the building changed. He decided to move his residence to the Louvre Castle, and the Hotel Saint-Pol. The concierge of the old palace was given greater authority over lower and middle courts. Prison cells were gradually added to the lower parts of the building, and it became known as the "Conciergerie". Its prisoners were a mixture of common criminals and political prisoners. In common with other prisons of the time, the treatment of prisoners was dependent on their wealth, status and associates. Wealthy or influential prisoners usually got their own cells with a bed, desk and materials for reading and writing. Less-well-off prisoners could afford to pay for simply furnished cells known as pistoles, which would be equipped with a rough bed and perhaps a table. The poorest would be confined to dark, damp, vermin-infested cells known as oubliettes. In keeping with the name, they were left to live or die in conditions that were ideal for the plague and other infectious diseases, which were rife in the unsanitary conditions of the prison.
15th–18th century
Without the king as a permanent resident, the buildings underwent many changes to fit its judicial and prison role. Louis XII had the Chamber des Comptes reconstructed, and redecorated the Grand Chamber, used by the Parlement of Paris. A flood of the Seine in the winter of 1689–1690 caused damage to the lower building, while a fire in 1737 destroyed the Chamber des Comptes. It was rebuilt by Ange-Jacques Gabriel. Another fire within the palace in 1776 caused even greater damage, reaching the chamber of the king, the gallery of merchants, and the main tower. The reconstruction following the 1776 fire added new cells to the ground level of the Conciergerie, and replaced the 12th century oratory with the present Chapel.The Conciergerie and the Reign of Terror
The Palais de la Cité and the Conciergerie played a central role in the French Revolution. On May 5, 1788, The Parlement of Paris, meeting in the Great Hall in 1788, refused to accept King Louis XVI's order to turn over two of its members for questioning and refused to leave the building. As the Revolution unfolded, The Parlement itself soon became unpopular. It was dismissed in 1790 by the new Constituent Assembly and the gates of the Palais de la Cité were locked.The first Paris Commune and Sans-culottes seized the Tuileries Palace on August 10, 1792 and took charge of the government and the Conciergerie. During the September Massacres, the Communard militants entered the city's prisons and in four days killed more than 1300 prisoners, including priests and others suspected of being upper class or hostile to the revolution. The victims included a large group executed in the Women's Courtyard of the Conciergerie on September 2–3, 1792.
Of the 488 prisoners in the Conciergerie, 74 women and 36 men were released by the mob and 378 was killed, of whom Marie Gredeler was the only female victim.
The Revolutionary Tribunal was created on March 10, 1793 by the more radical Montagnard faction over the opposition of the more moderate Girondins. The Tribunal met in the Grand Chamber of Palace on the upper floor between the Silver and Caesar towers. It was renamed the "Hall of Liberty." Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville, a Montagnard, was named public prosecutor and installed his office and residence next to the Chamber. In September 1793, the Terror intensified. The National Convention, controlled by the Montagnards, enacted the Law of Suspects on September 17, 1793. This act declared that anyone considered a counter-revolutionary or enemy of the republic was guilty of treason and thus, condemned to death. The Tribunal had five judges and 12 selected jury members. Trials were public and rapid and attracted large crowds. Verdicts could not be appealed. The number of monthly executions grew from 11 a month before the Law of Suspects to 124 per month.
The Queen, Marie Antoinette, was arrested on August 3, 1792 and first held in the Temple Prison with her family. The King was tried between December 3 and December 26, 1792 and executed 21 January 1793. The Queen was transferred from the Temple to the Conciergerie on the night of August 1–2, 1793. She was confined in a single-bed cell on the ground floor overlooking the Women's Courtyard. She was not allowed any writing instruments and was continually watched by two gendarmes. After several unsuccessful plots to free her were discovered, she was transferred to a different cell, where the current memorial chapel is located, and held there for 44 days. She was questioned in her cell on October 12 and was charged with three crimes: collusion with Austria, excessive expenditure and opposing the Revolution. Another charge, having incestuous relations with her son, was added during the trial. Her trial began on October 14, 1793 in the former Great Hall of the Palace. She had two court-appointed lawyers but they were only allowed less than a day to prepare their case. The trial lasted for two days, in which 41 witnesses testified. The trial concluded on 16 October 1793 and she was, as expected, sentenced to death and taken in a cart later that day to the guillotine, set up on Place de la Revolution, now Place de la Concorde.
During the period of 1793–94 at the height of the Reign of Terror, the prison held some 600 prisoners. Most were transferred to the Conciergerie from other prisons and spent only a few days before their trial and sentencing, or at most a few weeks. Political and criminal prisoners were mixed together. Poorer prisoners were confined in collective cells on the lowest level with straw-covered floors. These prisoners were called "Pailleaux", or "Straw sleepers." Others were confined to a square cell six feet wide and six feet long, with a narrow barred window. A small number of wealthier prisoners were able to bribe guards to have cells with two folding beds. These prisoners could send and receive mail, have their clothes washed and sometime have visitors. These prisoners were called "Pistoliers," because they bribed the guards with pistole coins. However, these privileges ceased as the prison became more crowded and the Terror reached its peak.
In the spring of 1794, the tribunal began judging the moderate revolutionary leaders, including Danton and Camille Desmoulins. In May they tried and sentenced Élisabeth of France, sister of Louis XVI, "For belonging to the Family of the Tyrant." On June 10, 1794, the court procedure was modified to allow speedier trials, witnesses were no longer needed and the definition of "suspect" was enlarged. By the end of June, an average of 38 persons a day were being tried, sentenced and sent to the guillotine. Between 1793 and 1795, two-thirds of prisoners tried were sentenced to death. At the peak of the Reign of Terror, four out of five prisoners were sentenced to death,
By the end of July 1794, the more moderate revolutionaries, fearing their own safety, turned against Robespierre and the other radical leaders. On July 27, a majority of the Convention voted for the arrest of Robespierre. Robespierre tried to commit suicide, was wounded and then taken to the Conciergerie, where he was given the former cell of Marie Antoinette. On July 28 he was condemned to death by the Tribunal and guillotined on the Place de la Revolution.
In August, the head of the tribunal, Fouquier-Tinville, was arrested and tried. He argued that "the execution of the laws, justice and humanity were always my sole rules of conduct" but he was confined for nine months in the Conciergerie and went to the guillotine on May 7, 1795. The tribunal was abolished on May 31, 1795. In 780 days, the tribunal had sentenced and executed 2,780 prisoners.
The early revolutionary period continued the prison's tradition of interning prisoners based on wealth, such that wealthier prisoners could rent a bed for 27 livres 12 sous for the first month, 22 livres 10 sous for subsequent months. Even when the price was decreased to 15 livres, the commanders of the prison made a fortune and as the Terror escalated, a prisoner could pay for a bed and be executed a few days later, freeing the bed for a new inmate who would then pay as well. One memoirist termed the Conciergerie "the most lucrative furnished lodgings in Paris". For most prisoners, the cramped cells were infested with rats, and the stench of urine permeated every room. As the Terror reached its peak, the special privileges for wealthy prisoners were largely reduced and ceased.
The prisoners, except those locked in the dungeons, were allowed to walk about the prisoners' gallery from 8 a.m. to an hour before sunset. Roll call was always a tortuous proceeding because many of the jailers were illiterate and it could take hours for them to confirm that all of the prisoners were accounted for. A principal jailer, who sat by the door, determined whether visitors would be allowed inside the prison. His decision depended more on his mood than any set proceedings. He was also in charge of resolving disputes between jailers and their charges.
Each evening, the prisoners gathered in the courtyard outside the Tour Bonbec to hear the reading of the list of prisoners who would be tried the following day. Once prisoners were tried and sentenced, they were taken to Salle de la Toilette, where their personal belongings were confiscated. They were put onto carts in the May Courtyard and taken to guillotines at sites throughout Paris. Some of the prisoners held at the Conciergerie were the poet André Chénier, Charlotte Corday, Madame Élisabeth, Madame du Barry and the 21 Girondins, a group of moderate deputies, arrested and executed in the early beginning of the Reign of Terror.