Rue Saint-Antoine in Paris is one of the oldest streets in the city. It already existed in Gallo-Roman times and was part of the road from Paris to Melun. The street is very steeped in history due to its proximity to the Place de la Bastille. It is an important artery in the heart of the Marais, crossing streets typical of the district such as rue Saint-Paul, rue de Turenne, rue de Birague (which leads to Place des Vosges) and rue Beautreillis. It was finally named Rue Saint-Antoine because of the Abbey of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs, which was outside the city on the road to Château de Vincennes and was converted into a hospital in 1790.
the road was higher than the surrounding marshland (Marais) and was covered with slabs, which in turn served as bases for the later roads. This Roman road branched east from the ancient main axis north of the Seine (roughly where today’s Rue Saint-Martin – part of the ancient main axis – begins), followed today’s Avenue Victoria, then ran across the Place de l’Hôtel-de-Ville and also through the Hôtel de Ville, then left past the parish church of Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais, and followed what is now Rue François Miron and finally Rue Saint-Antoine to the Bastille and beyond. In the Middle Ages, Rue Saint-Antoine stretched along this Roman road from Rue des Barres to Place de la Bastille. The part that has been called Rue François Miron since 1865 was called 1227 Rue de l’Aigle and Grand’rue de la Porte Baudeer (Baudoyer or Baudet – an 11th-century city gate just north of Saint-Gervais, now the Place Baudoyer). The part east of it, today’s Rue Saint-Antoine, was then called Rue du Pont Perrin. The rue Saint-Antoine ended in the city at the Place de Grève, the hub of river trade, but also offered a branch at the level of the Porte Baudoyer with the rue de la Tixeranderie (which no longer exists) on which one could continue to enter the city without touching the marketplace.
Today’s Rue Saint-Antoine was extraordinarily wide for its time, which is why it was also used as a promenade and as a place for events – especially since Charles V‘s residence, the Hôtel Saint-Pol (on the south side), and the Hôtel des Tournelles (on the north side) were located here, in the immediate vicinity of the Bastille, the Bastide Saint-Antoine, which closed off the road to the east.
The medieval buildings that no longer exist are the old Porte Sainte-Antoine (standing where the Rue de Rivoli begins), the Bastille and the New Porte Saint-Antoine (from Étienne Marcel‘s wall), the Hôtel Saint-Pol, the Hôtel d’Orgemont or Hôtel des Tournelles (the area on both sides of the rue de Birague up to the Place des Vosges), the Hôtel of Blanche of Navarre, Queen of France in the rue de la Vieille-Tixeranderie, made way for the construction of a road in the 19th century, the Couvent Sainte Cathérine (at today’s Place du Marché Sainte-Cathérine), and which together framed almost the entire area of the Rue Saint-Antoine. The Church of Sainte-Marie-des-Anges de la Visitation, now the Temple of Marais (No. 17), the Hôtel de Mayenne (No. 21), the Hôtel de Sully (No. 62), and the Church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis (n°99), Lycée Charlemagne (n°101), as well as Place des Vosges at the end of rue de Birague are of later date.
