La Force Prison

La Force Prison survives today only as a short, unassuming stretch of stone wall tucked against the City of Paris Historical Library. Once a private seventeenth-century mansion belonging to the duc de la Force, the structure was converted by the government in seventeen eighty into a detention center for debtors and civil offenders. It eventually split into two distinct wings, known as the Grande Force for men and the Petite Force for women, before the entire complex was demolished in eighteen forty-five.