page_title: Conciergerie
section_title: The Conciergerie and the Reign of Terror
hierarchical_section_title: Conciergerie / The Conciergerie and the Reign of Terror
caption_attribution_description: La Conciergerie pendant les travaux de reconstruction du Palais de Justice et vue du quai de l'Horloge Oeuvre d'Adrien Dauzats (1804-1868) environ 1857 Huile sur toile Collection du musée Carnavalet, Paris Peinture présentée dans l'exposition "Viollet-le-Duc, les visions d'un architecte" Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine www.citechaillot.fr/fr/expositions/expositions_temporaire... Français&#160;: Exposition Viollet-le-Duc, les visions d'un architecte, jeudi 20 novembre 2014 - lundi 09 mars 2015, Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, Paris.
context_page_description: The Conciergerie is a building in Paris, France, located on the west of the Île de la Cité, formerly a prison but presently used mostly for law courts. It was part of the former royal palace, the Palais de la Cité, which consisted of the Conciergerie, Palais de Justice and the Sainte-Chapelle. Hundreds of prisoners during the French Revolution were taken from the Conciergerie to be executed by guillotine at a number of locations around Paris.
context_section_description: The ten month Reign of Terror (September 1793 – July 1794) had a profound effect on France. More than 40,000 people died from execution and imprisonment, and France would not be a republic again for nearly half a century.
  The National Convention enacted the Law of Suspects on September 17, 1793. This act declared that anyone considered a counter-revolutionary or enemy of the republic was guilty of treason and, thus, condemned to death. The Revolutionary Tribunal was set up in the Palace of Justice. The two fates for those sent before the tribunal were acquittal or death, with no possibility of appeal. Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville, a radical, was named public prosecutor. The Tribunal sat in the Great Hall between 2 April 1793 and 31 May 1795 and sent nearly 2,600 prisoners to the guillotine.
  The Conciergerie prison became the main penitentiary of a network of prisons throughout Paris, and was the last place of housing for more than 2,700 people, who were summarily executed by guillotine. The dank dungeons were a stark contrast to the beautiful architecture of the palace above. The quality of life of the prisoners was based mainly on their personal wealth and the whims of the jailers. The revolutionary period continued the prison's tradition of interning prisoners based on wealth, such that wealthier prisoners could rent a bed for 27 livres 12 sous for the first month, 22 livres 10 sous for subsequent months. Even when the price was decreased to 15 livres, the commanders of the prison made a fortune: as the Terror escalated, a prisoner could pay for a bed and be executed a few days later, freeing the bed for a new inmate who would then pay as well. One memoirist termed the Conciergerie "the most lucrative furnished lodgings in Paris". Only celebrity prisoners were assigned cells to themselves. Most of the pistole inmates were stuffed into a single room that abutted a local hospital, making disease an inevitability. The cramped cells were infested with rats, and the stench of urine permeated every room.
  All the prisoners, except those locked in the dungeons, were allowed to walk about the prisoners' gallery from 8 a.m. to an hour before sunset. Roll call was always a tortuous proceeding because many of the jailers were illiterate and it could take hours for them to confirm that all of the prisoners were accounted for. A principal jailer, who sat by the door, determined whether visitors would be allowed inside the prison. His decision depended more on his mood than any set proceedings. He was also in charge of resolving disputes between jailers and their charges.
  Trials and executions progressed in a rapid, unpredictable manner; one could be tried by the court and executed before the next morning. The condemned would be walked through the Salle de la Toilette, where their personal belongings were confiscated. Carts loaded them in the May Courtyard and brought them to guillotines throughout Paris. Prisoners held at the Conciergerie included Marie Antoinette, poet André Chénier, Charlotte Corday, Madame Élisabeth, Madame du Barry and the 21 Girondins, purged at the beginning of the Terror. Georges Danton later awaited his execution here, and, during the Thermidorian Reaction, Robespierre himself was interned for a brief time before his execution.
caption: The Palais de Justice, the Conciergerie and the Tour de l'Horloge, by Adrien Dauzats, after 1858.
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