Sainte-Pélagie Prison

Sainte-Pélagie Prison occupied a site now situated at the intersection of Rue de la Clef and Rue du Puits-de-l’Ermite. The facility functioned as a specialized detention center for political prisoners, journalists, and writers who fell foul of French authorities throughout the nineteenth century. Originally established as a seventeenth-century convent for repentant women, the buildings were repurposed into a prison during the French Revolution in seventeen ninety and remained in operation until eighteen ninety-nine.