Forum des Halles

History

In 1137, Louis VI le Gros created an open air market in the vicinity of les Halles. In 1183, Philippe-Auguste had the first permanent structures built there, followed by some more in subsequent years.

Up until the 16th century, les Halles underwent few changes. Then Saint-Eustache church was built. Under François I, the site of les Halles was considerably modified: it was entirely rebuilt, from 1532 to 1640.

Increasing success. From the beginning of the 18th century, congestion of the district became problematical. Napoleon declared : "I want to turn Les Halles into the Louvre of the people." In 1811, everything speeded up... with the decision to build a large market hall. Numerous projects came one after the other.

Forty years later, in 1851, the first stone of Baltard's Les Halles was laid. In 1853, the first pavilion was inaugurated by Napoleon III. In the end, ten pavilions were built, each devoted to a particular type of merchandise.

For a whole century, from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, life seemed to have stood still at les Halles. A nocturnal hive of activity in the heart of Paris, a market that supplied the capital city.

Baltard's Les Halles marked the city's history. So much so that the descriptions to be found in Le Ventre de Paris, (The Belly of Paris) by Emile Zola in 1873 apply to a century of life at les Halles...

"The deep gloom brooding in the hollows of the roofs multiplied, as it were, the forest of pillars, and infinitely increased the number of delicate ribs, railed galleries, and transparent shutters.(...)"And over the phantom city and far away into the depths of the shade, a teeming, flowering vegetation of luxuriant metal-work, with spindle-shaped stems and twining knotted branches, covered the vast expanse as with the foliage of some ancient forest".
Emile Zola, Le Ventre de Paris, translated by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly

In 1969, Les Halles market, unchanged for a century, and unsuitable for modern needs, moved to Rungis. The pavilions were destroyed two years later. From the "hole" of les Halles emerged the Forum, inaugurated on 4th September 1979.

From among the numerous projects considered, it was a shopping, cultural and leisure centre which came into being, open to natural light and with its roots in the city. The beginning of a new age.

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Les Halles, 16th century
©Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Pari

Saint-Eustache, 17th
©Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris

Les Halles, 1738
©Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris

By Eugène Atget
©Bibliothèque nationale de France

France Soir, 5th September 1979