Paris covered market halls built in the 1800s

Nineteenth-century Paris solved the problem of shopping in mud twice over: iron-framed food halls dropped into the middle of neighbourhoods, and glass-roofed passages cut through blocks between the boulevards. Some are still working markets with fishmongers and lunch counters; others sold their grocers to booksellers and hat shops a century ago but kept the verrière. What holds them together is the roof, the date, and the fact that all of them can still be walked into for free.

Places in this collection

  • Halle Secrétan — Victor Baltard built this hall in 1868 with a Polonceau-type metal truss, the same structural language he used for Les Halles, and it was l…
  • Marché Saint-Quentin — The predecessor here was the Saint-Laurent market of 1835, demolished in 1852 when the boulevard de Strasbourg was cut through; the present…
  • Marché Saint-Germain — Third market on the site: a hall of 1511 was demolished in 1762, a replacement stood from 1760 to 1771, and the surviving structure of four…
  • Marché de La Chapelle — Auguste-Joseph Magne built this cast iron and iron hall between 1883 and 1885 for food and nothing else, on a site where a cattle and dairy…
  • Marché Beauvau — The market itself was created in 1779 by Samson-Nicolas Lenoir; the hall was rebuilt in 1811 and enlarged in 1843, when the city handed the…
  • Marché des Enfants Rouges — The oldest covered market in the city, with sources dating the foundation to 1615 or 1628 and agreeing on its classification as a historic…

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