Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The building of 11 rue de Saintonge, in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, is part of the vast project of subdivision of the Marais initiated in the 17th century. Built after 1617 under the original name of 7 rue de Touraine, it belonged in 1621 to Guillaume Cornuel, notary and secretary of the king. This building, divided into several lots since the 18th century, illustrates the evolution of the Parisian habitat, moving from the aristocratic home to multiple dwellings occupied by a bourgeois and artisanal population in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The particularity of this building lies in its painted ceiling, discovered in 2003 in an apartment in the backyard. This decoration, hidden by false ceilings probably installed between the 18th and early 19th centuries, is a remarkable example of the art of living of the elites of the Great Century. The ceiling, typical of bourgeois or noble interiors of the period, was classified as Historic Monument by decree of 31 May 2017, highlighting its heritage value.

The rue de Saintonge itself, opened in 1626, is part of Henry IV's urban project to create a square in France surrounded by streets with provincial names. Originally segmented into sections with various names (rue de Touraine-au-Marais, rue la Marche), it was unified under its current name in 1851. The building of n°11, although transformed, thus preserves the memory of this historic district, marked by figures such as Blaise Pascal (who lived at n°13 from 1648 to 1651) or Robespierre (located at n°64 in 1789-1791).

In the 19th century, the street hosted a variety of activities, including the foundry Rudier (n°45, 1880-1934), specialized in the reproduction of sculptures, or the Journal des artistes, whose manager François Fortuné Guyot de Fère lived at n°19 in 1832. These traces recall the role of the Marais as a cultural and artisanal home, between aristocratic heritage and industrial modernity.

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