Site of the Montfaucon Gibbet

Paris · France · Execution site

Fifty bodies hung in chains on this hill at once, for centuries. On the rue de la Grange-aux-Belles they still rattle in the night wind.

North of medieval Paris, roughly where the hôpital Saint-Louis and the rue de la Grange-aux-Belles stand today, rose the gibbet of the kings: a stone monument of sixteen pillars where the bodies of the executed were hung in chains and left to the wind and the crows, sometimes for months. Up to fifty corpses could hang there at once, and the stench reached into the city. Its construction is credited to Enguerrand de Marigny, adviser to Philip the Fair, who ended up hanging from his own creation in 1315. The gibbet was not demolished until 1760, after more than six centuries. Victor Hugo wrote of the evening wind scraping chains and skeletons together in the dark, and the quarter keeps the legend alive: that chains and cries of pain can still be heard where the hill once stood.

FAQ

Where is Site of the Montfaucon Gibbet located?

Site of the Montfaucon Gibbet is in Paris, France.