La Force Prison

After passing through several hands,{{sfn|The History of Paris II|1825|pp=375-377}} the buildings were acquired, in 1754, by the war ministry, and were transformed, in 1780, into a prison.

{{sfn|Galignani|1827|p=488}}

The Hôtel de la Force was renamed La Grande Force and was intended for debtors and those charged with civil offences.{{sfn|Galignani|1827|p=488}} The prison consisted of several buildings, each of which had a separate yard. The most airy building was situated in the centre between two yards planted with trees.{{sfn|Galignani|1827|p=488}} It was there that such prisoners were detained who could incur some expense. On the left was the infirmary.{{sfn|Galignani|1827|p=488}}

At the same time as the Hôtel de la Force was being converted into a prison, the Hôtel de Brienne was demolished, and a new prison for prostitutes was erected on its site, which was called La Petite Force.{{sfn|Galignani|1827|p=488}} The front presented a somber aspect. It was ornamented with vermiculated rustics and the entrance was formed by an elliptical arch. It was three stories high and was surmounted by a Doric cornice. In its construction, neither wood nor plaster were employed, the whole being built of stone bound together by iron bars.{{sfn|Galignani|1827|pp=488-489}} It was located adjacent to the Hôtel de Lamoignon.{{cite web|title=Gallery|work=Carpe Horas|url=http://www.chanvrerie.net/old/tourguide/gallery/laforce1.html|publisher=Chanvrerie.net|accessdate=27 December 2013}}
Just past the Hotel Lamoignon, on the left hand side of Rue Pavée, is a fragment of stone wall and a plaque shaped like a boat paddle beside it. This is all that remains of La Force Prison.

During the French Revolution, this prison was used for political prisoners, and it was here that the close friend of Marie Antoinette, the Princesse de Lamballe was taken. La Force came under attack by violent mobs on 3 September 1792, and the four following days: one hundred and sixty prisoners, among whom were three priests and the Princesse de Lamballe, were massacred there.{{sfn|Galignani|1827|p=488}}{{cite web|title=London Times, Monday, 10 September, 1792|work=British Newspaper Coverage of the French Revolution: The September Massacres

|url=http://oldsite.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ayliu/research/around-1800/fr/times-9-10-1792.html

|publisher=Oldsite.english.ucsb.edu|accessdate=28 December 2013}}

The Grande Force had housed only male prisoners and the Petite Force had been used exclusively for women, however, in 1830 the two prisons were united, and placed under one management. The whole prison was then converted to house males committed for trial. These prisoners were divided into two separate groups: the old offenders into one ward, the young and comparatively innocent into another.{{sfn|Bartlett|1890|p=245}}

The prisoners slept in large and well ventilated chambers, and the boys each had a small apartment which contained a single bed. The prisoners had the privilege of working if they wished, but they were not obliged to do so, inasmuch as they were on remand and not yet convicted of crime.{{sfn|Bartlett|1890|p=245}} There was a department for the sick, a bathing-room, a parlor, and an advocate's room, where the prisoners could hold conversations with their legal defenders.{{sfn|Bartlett|1890|p=245}}

The two prisons of La Force were demolished in 1845, and the only remaining part is a section of wall adjoining the City of Paris Historical Library.

File:1791 miniature of the Princess of Lamballe by Johann Julius Heinsius.jpg

{{Commons category|Madame de Lamballe}}

Detainees included:

• Benjamin Nicolas Marie Appert
• Jean Sylvain Bailly
• Pierre-Jean de Béranger
• Aimé Picquet du Boisguy
• Edme Castaing
• George Henry Caunter
• Constantin-François Chassebœuf
• Clotworthy Skeffington, 2nd Earl of Massereene, Irish nobleman{{sfn|Malcolmson|1972|pp=4, 6}}
• Claude Fournier
• Évariste Galois
• Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
• Victor Claude Alexandre Fanneau de Lahorie
• Claude Ledoux
• Simon-Nicolas-Henri Linguet
• Gregor MacGregor
• Marie Angélique de Mackau
• Francisco de Miranda
• Anne de Noailles
• Princess Marie Louise of Savoy
• Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud and 12 other Girondist deputies

Fictional detainees included:

• Charles Darnay (fictional character in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities)
• Lucien de Rubempré and Jacques Collins (fictional characters in Honoré de Balzac's Illusions perdues and Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes"
• Thénardier (fictional character in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables)
• Benedetto (fictional character in Alexander Dumas' The Count of Monte-Cristo)
• James Dillon (fictional character in John Hobart Caunter's The Fellow Commoner (1836))

{{Reflist}}

;Attribution

{{source-attribution|{{cite book|last=Galignani|first=A. and Galignani, W.|title=Galignani's New Paris Guide, or, Stranger's Companion Through the French Metropolis|location=Paris|publisher=A. and W. Galignani|year=1827|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_WKNLLpNGP3QC|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_WKNLLpNGP3QC/page/n602 488]|ref=none}}}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book|last=Bartlett

|first=David W.

|title=Paris: With Pen and Pencil; Its People and Literature, Its Life and Business

|location=New York

|publisher=Hurst

|year=1890

|url=https://archive.org/stream/ocm08888197.3973.emory.edu/ocm08888197_3973#page/n243/mode/2up

}}

• {{cite web|title=London Times, Monday, 10 September, 1792

|work=British Newspaper Coverage of the French Revolution: The September Massacres

|url=http://oldsite.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ayliu/research/around-1800/fr/times-9-10-1792.html

|publisher=Oldsite.english.ucsb.edu|accessdate=28 December 2013

}}

• {{cite book|last=Galignani

|first=A. and Galignani, W.

|title=Galignani's New Paris Guide, or, Stranger's Companion Through the French Metropolis

|location=Paris

|publisher=A. and W. Galignani

|year=1827

|edition=15th

|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_WKNLLpNGP3QC

|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_WKNLLpNGP3QC/page/n602 488]

}}

• {{cite book|title=The history of Paris: from the earliest period to the present day ...

|volume=II

|location=London

|publisher=G. B. Whittaker; A. and W. Galignani

|year=1825

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v23SAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA375

|ref={{sfnref|The History of Paris II|1825|pp=375-377}}

}}

• {{cite book|last=Malcolmson

|first=A. P. W., comp.

|title=The extraordinary career of the 2nd Earl of Massereene, 1743-1805; a volume of select documents with explanatory notes and introduction by A.P.W. Malcomson and a foreword by the Rt. Hon. The Viscount Massereene and Ferrard, D. L.

|series=Ulster Characters

|location=Belfast

|publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office

|year=1972

|isbn=0337022828

}}

{{refend}}

{{Commons category|Prison de La Force}}

• [http://www.chanvrerie.net/old/tourguide/gallery/laforce1.html Hôtel de La Force] La Force Prisons, Gallery

Category:1780 establishments in France

Category:Defunct prisons in Paris

Category:Buildings and structures in the 4th arrondissement of Paris

Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1845