place de la Contrescarpe

Place de la Contrescarpe is a circular, cobblestoned square measuring roughly forty meters across at the convergence of five streets, including the market route of Rue Mouffetard. A small island planted with trees and a public fountain occupies the center. This space was carved into the dense fabric of the Latin Quarter in eighteen fifty-two by demolishing a cluster of houses that once filled the intersection. The name preserves a military history, as it refers to the counterscarp, or outer slope, of the defensive ditch that once protected the twelfth-century wall of King Philip Augustus.