CHAPTER XL

LES GOBELINS ARRONDISSEMENT XIII. (GOBELINS) The brothers Gobelin, Jehan and Philibert, famous dyers of the day, established their great factory on the banks of the Bièvre about the year 1443. Jehan had a fine private mansion in the vicinity of his dye-works known as Le Cygne. At a little distance, on higher ground, was another _hôtel_ known as la Folie Gobelin. The rich scarlet dye the brothers turned out was greatly prized; their business prospered, grew into a huge concern. But in the first year of the seventeenth century a Flemish firm of upholsterers came to Paris and established themselves on the banks of the tributary of the Seine, entirely replacing the Gobelins’ works. This in its turn yielded to another firm, but the name remained unchanged. A few years later the firm and all the buildings connected therewith were taken over by the State, and in 1667, by the initiative of the minister Colbert, were organized as the royal factory “des meubles de la Couronne.” On the ancient walls behind the modern façade we see two inscriptions referring to the founders of the world-famed factory. This hinder part of the vast building is of special interest to the lover of old-world vestiges. The central structure, two wings and the ancient chapel of the original building, still stand, and around on every side we see quaint old houses in tortuous streets, courtyards of past centuries, where twentieth-century work goes on apace, picturesque corners densely inhabited by a busy population. For this is also the great tanning district of the city. Curious old-world sights meet us as we wind in and out among these streets and passages which have stood unchanged for several hundred years. The artistic work of the great factory was from the first given into the hands of men of noted ability, beginning in 1667 with Charles le Brun; and from the first it was regarded as an institution of special interest and importance. Visitors of mark, royal and other, lay and ecclesiastical, were taken to see it. The Pope, when in Paris in 1805, did not fail to visit “les Gobelins.” In 1826 the great Paris soap-works were removed from Chaillot and set up here in connection with the dye-works. The fine old building was set fire to by the Communards in 1871--much of it burnt to the ground, many priceless pieces of tapestry destroyed. At No. 17 Rue des Gobelins, in its earlier days Rue de la Bièvre, crossed by the stream so carefully hidden beneath its surface now, we see the old _castel_ de la Reine Blanche. It dates from the sixteenth century, on the site of a more ancient _castel_, where tradition says the “_bals des ardents_” were given, notably that of the year 1392 when the accident took place which turned King Charles VI into a madman. But the “Reine Blanche,” for whom it was first built, was probably not the mother of St. Louis, but the widow of Philippe de Valois, who died in 1398. In the sixteenth century relatives of the brothers Gobelin lived there. Then it was the head office of the great factory. Revolutionists met there in 1790 to organize the attack of June 20th. In Napoléon’s time it was a brewery, now it is a tannery. [Illustration: CASTEL DE LA REINE BLANCHE] Rue Croulebarbe, once on the banks of the Bièvre, has an old-world, village-like aspect. The buildings bordering the broad Avenue des Gobelins are devoid of interest, but beneath several of them important Roman remains have been found, and besides the old streets running into the avenue in the immediate vicinity of the Gobelins Factory, we find at intervals other old streets and passages with many interesting vestiges; at No. 37, the Cour des Rames. The city gate St-Marcel stood in past days across the avenue where the house No. 45 now stands. In Rue Le Brun we see the remains of the _hôtel_ where, in the early years of the eighteenth century, dwelt Jean Julienne, the master of the Gobelins. Rue du Banquier shows many curious old-time houses. In Rue de la Glacière on the western side of the arrondissement, so named in long-gone days from an ice-house furnished from the Bièvre, and in the short streets leading out of it, we find old houses here and there. Rue de la Tannerie was until quite modern times Rue des Anglaises from the couvent des Filles Anglaises, founded at Cambrai, established here in 1664--the chief duty of the nuns being to offer prayers for the conversion of England to Romanism! Disturbed at the Revolution, they returned to their own land and the convent became a prison under the Terror. At No. 28 of this old street we see vestiges of the chapel cloisters. Covering a large area in the east of this arrondissement is the hospice known as La Salpétrière. In long-past days a powder magazine stood on the site: traces of that old arsenal may still be seen in the hospital wash-house. The foundation of the hospice dates from Louis XIII, as a house for the reception of beggars. The present structure, the work of the architect Vau, was built in the seventeenth century, destined for the destitute and the mad. The fine chapel was built a few years later. At the close of the century a woman’s prison was added, whither went many of the Convulsionists of St. Médard (_see_ p. 150). Mme Lamotte concerned in the _affaire du collier_ was shut up here. And in a scene of the well-known operette Manon Lescaut is shown within its walls. In September, 1792, the Revolutionary mob broke into the prison, slew the criminals, opened the doors to the light women shut up there. We see before us the “Cour des Massacres.” Then in 1883 la Salpétrière was organized as the “Hospice de la Vieillesse-Femmes.” There are five thousand beds. In 1908 the new hospital de la Pitié was built in its grounds. [Illustration: LA SALPÉTRIÈRE]