Paris
Price €95
Min age 0
Rating 4.83 / 5 [56 ratings]
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Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Along with Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie once formed part of a vast Medieval palace, with impressive, vaulted Gothic halls, that included the Sainte-Chapelle. Abandoned as a palace by the French Kings at the end of the 14th century, it took on a more judicial role, and parts were converted to prison cells.
Today, it’s most famously remembered as the ‘antechamber to the guillotine’, where nobles were held prior to execution in the bloodiest days of the French Revolution. Prisoners included the Queen at the time of the French Revolution and the last Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. She was executed by guillotine in 1793 to the cheers of the populace – one of almost three thousand prisoners, mostly from the upper classes, to be tried and sentenced at the Conciergerie.
Now a historic monument, only a small area of the building is open to the public. A small, commemorative chapel now was erected on the site of Marie Antoinette’s cell.
The nearest metro station is Cité. Access to the monument is via the Place Louis Lépine (next to the Flower Market). Buy tickets on the website before you go, though you can just turn up.
Visitors are given access to the Salles des Gardes, the vaulted Gothic hall, the Medieval kitchens and the Chapelle des Girondins, Marie Antoinette’s cell. There is a free one-hour augmented reality tour available on (supplied) iPads in multiple languages that reconstructs the history.
The Conciergerie is open seven days a week, all year round.
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