page_title: Paris in the 17th century
section_title: Thieves and the Courtyard of Miracles
hierarchical_section_title: Paris in the 17th century / Parisians / Thieves and the Courtyard of Miracles
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Gravure représentant «&#160;le grand Coësre&#160;», extraite du Recueil des plus illustres proverbes divisés en trois livres&#160;: le premier contient les proverbes moraux, le second les proverbes joyeux et plaisans, le troisiesme représente la vie des gueux en proverbes, Jacques Lagniet, Paris, 1663.
context_page_description: Paris in the 17th century was the largest city in Europe, with a population of half a million, matched in size only by London. It was ruled in turn by three monarchs; Henry IV, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV, and saw the building of some of the city's most famous parks and monuments, including the Pont Neuf, the Palais Royal, the newly joined Louvre and Tuileries Palace, the Place des Vosges, and the Luxembourg Garden. It was also a flourishing center of French science and the arts; it saw the founding of the Paris Observatory, the French Academy of Sciences and the first botanical garden in Paris, which also became the first park in Paris open to the public. The first permanent theater opened, the Comédie-Française was founded, and the first French opera and French ballets had their premieres. Paris became the home of the new Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and of some of France's most famous writers, including Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, La Fontaine and Moliere. Urban innovations for the city included the first street lighting, the first public transport, the first building code, and the first new aqueduct since Roman times.
context_section_description: Beside the beggars and the poor there was another underclass in Paris, composed of thieves.  They often were expert in cutting the cords of the purses that wealthy Parisians carried around their necks and running off with them.  They also sometimes pretended to be blind or lame, so they could attract charity from the Parisians. In the 17th century the most famous residence of such thieves was the Cour des Miracles, or Courtyard of Miracles, located between rue Montorgueil, the convent of the Filles-Dieu, and rue Neuve-Saint-Saveur, in the center of the city.   It was named because its residents often appeared to blind or lame when on the streets but were perfectly whole when they returned home.  It was described  by the 18th-century Paris historian Sauval, based on his father's description of a visit to the Courtyard.   "To enter there you have to descend a rather long slope, twisting and uneven. I saw a house half-buried in mud, crumbling with age and rot, which had only a fraction of its roof tiles, where however were lodged more than fifty families, with all their legitimate, illegitimate and undetermined children. I was assured that in this house and its neighbors there were more than five hundred large families living one on top of the other". The courtyard was a school of crime;  the children were taught the best techniques for stealing purses and escaping, and were given a final examination of stealing a purse in a public place, such as the Cemetery of Saints-Innocents,  under the scrutiny of their teachers.  The Courtyard had its own King, laws, officers and ceremonies. The young inhabitants became expert in not only stealing, but also in simulating blindness, gangrene, rabies, and a wide variety of horrifying wounds and illnesses.  In 1630, the city wanted to build a street through the Courtyard to connect rue Saint-Sauveur and rue Neuve-Saint-Sauveur, but the  workmen were showered with rocks and assaulted and beaten by the residents of the Courtyard, and the project was abandoned.
  In 1668, shortly after being named Lieutenant-General of Police, de la Reynie decided to finally put an end to the Courtyard. He gathered  one hundred fifty soldiers, gendarmes and sappers to break down the walls, and stormed the Courtyard, under a barrage or rocks from the residents. The inhabitants finally fled, and de la Reynie tore down their houses. The empty site was divided into lots and houses constructed. and is now part of the Benne-Nouvelle quarter.  Sauval's description of the Courtyard was the source for Victor Hugo's courtyard of miracles in his novel Notre-Dame de Paris, though Hugo moved the period from the 17th century to the Middle Ages.
caption: Caricature of the king of Paris thieves Cöesre, in the Courtyard of Miracles, by Lagniet (1663)
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