Location: Formerly: corner Rue Coquillière and Rue du Jour. Since installed in the Jardin Nelson-Mandela.
English translation
"As the city expanded, the Gréve market became too small: in 1137, Louis VI created a new trading centre west of the rue Saint-Denis, in a place called Les Champeaux. In 1181, Philippe Auguste transferred the Saint-Lazare fair to this site, and then erected two long buildings, called halls [or halles], closed at night, where merchants could store and sell their wares. A third covered market was built in 1265, followed by two fish markets. Under Henri II, the Halles marketplace was remodeled on a triangular plan that lasted until the Second Empire. Baltard then built the high iron pavilions celebrated by Zola. In 1969, the central markets left Paris for Rungis, and its pavilions gave way to the Forum des Halles." (Translated by DeepL and ChatGPT)Background notes
- At the end of the 11th-century, the Place de Gréve (which is now Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, the location of the city hall), was the site where the river traders unloaded their goods and the chief mercantile centre of Paris.
- From 1137, with the transfer of the Gréve market, Les Halles became Paris's central fresh food market. This area, located on old swamplands, was called the Little Fields (Champeaux).
- To create a more organised market, Victor Baltard constructed the iron pavilions of Les Halles between 1854 and 1874. The project was commissioned during the Second Empire under Napoleon III, with the first two buildings inaugurated in October 1857 and the entire eastern sector (representing six buildings) completed a year later. Four other buildings were erected between 1858 and 1874, with the complex completed in 1936, with the construction of two reproductions.
- Baltard's design featured a collection of iron and glass structures that were innovative for their time, reflecting modern architectural principles and the industrialization of building techniques.
- Having become entirely a food market, the remodeled market was known as the Belly of Paris, as Émile Zola called it in his 1873 novel Le Ventre de Paris, which is set in the busy marketplace of the 19th century.
- However, the market at Les Halles remained unsanitary and occupied prime real estate in the middle of Paris. As a result, a decision was made to move the food market to Rungis in 1969, near the Paris-Orly airport.
- The Les Halles site was then redeveloped as a shopping centre, which was again demolished in 2010 and replaced by the current Westfield Forum des Halles, a modern shopping centre, built largely underground, with the 2.5 hectare Jardin Nelson Mandela above it.
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| Canopy of the Forum des Halles |
