Gavarni fountain's lorette

Many things to see, on this small quiet square: la Païva's town house and Dosne-Thiers' city house. Come on, follow me!

This district was born in 1824, thanks to architect Auguste Constantin. Paris, at that time, counted 713 966 inhabitants in 1817 and 890 460 ten years later.

Old districts in the heart of the city were completely blocked, they had to build to the north-west of the city: it was called the "moving of Paris".

Let's see the Dosne-Thiers' house, first: it was raised in 1824 and belonged to Mrs Dosne, the wife of a property speculator who managed the company who created the housing estate.

All the upper crust used to visit the nice house, which was burnt in a fire in 1871. It was rebuilt by the French state with much expense.

Now let's see the magnificent house which belonged to the Païva. Raised in 1840 in the Gothic-Renaissance style by architect Renaud, did you notice the façade?

Full of angels, griffins, genies of Architecture and Sculpture... At that time, the rent of this house was the most expensive one in Paris!

But, who was that Païva? In 1851, Thérèse Lachmann moved in the ground-floor of this house.

Marquis de la Païva, crippled with debts, came in one day; the lovely Thérèse married him, and she became La Païva, the Parisian queen of the Second Empire!

Did you notice the fountain, in the middle of the square? Horses used to drink here. It became dry in the beginning of the 20th century when northern underground line was created.

A bust of Gavarni was put here in 1911. On the fountain, we have the face of a lorette (a kind of woman of easy virtue).

French dictionary Larousse said in 1866 that lorettes "used to live behind the church Notre-Dame-de-Lorette"...