RUE QUINCAMPOIX
The old Roman road Rue St-Martin coming northward through the 4th arrondissement enters the 3rd from Rue Rambuteau. Along its entire course it is rich in old-world vestiges: ancient mansions, old signs, venerable sculptures, bas-reliefs, etc. In the Passage de l’Ancre, opening at No. 223, the first office for cab-hiring was opened in 1637. At No. 254 we come to the old church St-Nicolas-des-Champs, originally a chapel in the fields forming part of the abbey lands of St-Martin-des-Champs, subsequently the parish church of the district, rebuilt at the beginning of the fifteenth century, enlarged towards the end of the sixteenth century—a beautiful edifice in Gothic style of two different periods and known as the church of a hundred columns. The sacristy, once the presbytery, and a sundial dating from 1666, front the old Rue Cunin-Gridaine. Crossing Rue Réaumur, we reach the fine old abbey buildings which since the Revolution have served as the Paris Arts and Crafts Institution. The Abbey was built on the spot beyond the Paris boundary where St. Martin, on his way to the city, is said to have healed a leper. The invading Normans knocked it down; it was rebuilt in 1056 and the Abbey grounds surrounded a few years afterwards by high walls, rebuilt later as strong fortifications with eighteen turrets. Part of those walls and a restored tower are seen at No. 7 Rue Bailly. Within the walls were the Abbey chapel, long, beautiful cloisters, a prison, a market, etc. In the fourteenth century the Abbey was included within the city bounds and the monks held their own till 1790. In 1798, the disaffected Abbey buildings were chosen wherein to place the models collected by Vaucanson—pioneer of machinists; other collections were added and in the century following various changes and additions made in the old Abbey structure.
ST-NICOLAS-DES-CHAMPS
The big door giving on Rue St-Martin dates only from 1850. The great flight of steps in the court, built first in 1786, was remodelled and modernized in 1860. The ancient cloisters, remodelled, have been for years past the scene of busy mechanical and industrial study. The ancient and beautiful refectory, the work of Pierre de Montereau, architect of the Sainte-Chapelle (see [p. 48]) has become the Library. Beneath the fine vaulted roof, amid tall, slender columns of exquisite workmanship, students read where monks of old took their meals. The old Abbey chapel (twelfth and thirteenth centuries) restored in the nineteenth century, serves as the depot for models of steam-engines, etc. A small Gothic chapel is in the hands of a gas company. Other venerable portions of the Abbey, fallen into ruin, have quite recently been removed.
Rue Vertbois, on the northern side of the institution, records the existence of a leafy wood in the old Abbey grounds. The tower dates from 1140, the fountain from 1712; both were restored at the end of the nineteenth century. Going on up this old street we find numerous traces of what were erewhile the Abbey precincts.
Porte St-Martin at the angle where the rue meets the boulevard is that last of three great portes moving northward, and each in its time marking the city boundary.