The Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine (English: Street of the Suburb of Saint Anthony) is a street in Paris. It should not be confused with Rue Saint-Antoine, which leads from the center to the Bastille. The Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine owes its name to the fact that it combines the suburb of that name outside the city walls of Charles V (French: Enceinte de Charles V) with the Abbey of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs (destroyed in the 18th century).
The road presents (and presented) a good opportunity for barricades because of the bottlenecks (17 to 30 m) combined with the labyrinthine aspect of the adjacent streets. It borders the Place de la Bastille and stretches from the Rue de Charenton and the Rue de la Roquette to the Place de la Nation. There are fountains at the intersection with Rue de Charonne and Rue de Montreuil. In the eastern part of the street it is bordered by trees. The street is accessible by Métro from Bastille, Ledru-Rollin, Faidherbe – Chaligny and Nation stations.
The Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine is one of the oldest streets in Paris, but was long outside the Paris city walls, as the name suggests; because Faubourg means suburb. However, the street has always had an exposed position because it had to be crossed on the way from central Paris to the east to get to Vincennes and its castle. The suburb of Saint-Antoine grew in the Middle Ages around the monastery of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs, built towards the end of the 12th century.
The real growth of the suburb of Saint-Antoine began in the 15th century when, by special order from the king, all artisans living here gained tax exemption. This special privilege and the geographical proximity to the Seine, via which all timber transports to Paris at the time came, made the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine the main street in Paris for wood and furniture craftsmen, who settled in the back courtyards and adjacent alleys. Due to the furniture makers based here, the street gained national fame and so the famous École Boulle, influential for French furniture design, almost logically has its headquarters in this street. Even though many of the workshops have since disappeared, furniture making is still present, albeit predominantly through shops and showrooms.
