Location: Corner of 164 rue Saint-Denis and Passage de la Trinité
English Translation:
From 142 to 164 rue Saint-Denis stood the Hôpital de la Trinité, founded in 1201 by two German noblemen, the half-brothers Guillaume Escuacol and Jean de la Palée, to shelter travellers arriving after the gates of Philippe Auguste’s city wall had closed. Managed by the Premonstratensians from 1210 onwards, in 1402 it housed Paris’s first theatre, where the Confrères de la Passion performed mystery plays and farces. The actors were forced to leave in 1535, when the hospital was reassigned to poor orphans. Later known as the Hospice des Enfants Bleus, after the colour of the children’s clothing, the institution trained many skilled artisans until its closure in 1790.