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Origin and history

The Barracks des Mousquetaires-Noirs, located at 26 rue de Charenton in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, was built between 1699 and 1701 by architects Robert de Cotte and Jean Beausire. It was intended to house the second company of the King's Musketeers, nicknamed Blacks because of the dress of their horses, to distinguish them from the first company (the Greys). This project met a need for centralization, the Musketeers being previously housed at the home of the inhabitants in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, an unpopular and impractical solution for their training and service.

The choice of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine was explained by its proximity to Paris, easy access to water for drinking horses, and the availability of low-urbanized and inexpensive land. The construction was financed by the proceeds of the sale of the land in Place Vendôme, as indicated by the letters patent of Louis XIV in 1699. The barracks, organized around two courses, included houses for more than 300 Musketeers, stables for 300 horses, as well as a chapel and workshops for artisans (sellier, armorsmith, marshal-ferrant).

Among the Musketeers who had stayed in the barracks, Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette was said to have completed his military apprenticeship between the ages of 12 and 17, before playing a key role in the United States' war of independence. The company was abolished in 1775, and the cardinal of Rohan transferred the hospital of the Fifteen Wings in 1780. Today, only the entrance pavilion, the chapel of Saint-Rémy (partly preserved) and some related buildings, classified as Historic Monuments in 1976, remain from the original barracks.

The buildings were structured around two main courtyards: the first, bordered by the houses of the Musketeers, was closed by a hemispheric wall pierced by the entrance pavilion overlooking the rue de Charenton. The second courtyard, accessible by a passage in the central body, was dedicated to stables, able to accommodate 300 horses in stalls. A third yard, called manure, was used to store the waste prior to disposal. The latrines were integrated into the enclosure walls, reflecting the hygienic constraints of the time.

After the Revolution, the Fifteen-Vingt Hospital, originally founded in the 13th century to accommodate 300 blind people, was relocated to the former barracks. This site, always dedicated to ophthalmology, thus perpetuates an uninterrupted medical vocation for more than two centuries. The protected elements (carrier, choir, apse and spans of the chapel) bear witness to the military architecture of the early eighteenth century, marked by rational and functional organization.

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