Le Caveau des Oubliettes has an impressive history. strange and terrible prison, considered a branch of the prison Chatelet, the vault was created in the twelfth century by Philip II Augustus (1165-1223). At the time, she was the special prison His Majesty the King.
Philippe Auguste, sometimes called the blind, who governed France for 43 years (1170-1223), was a “collector” of land and a town planner and increased the royal power whatsoever on the capital or the countryside. Under the reign of the blind, was founded a powerful and secret chancellery to identify the enemies of the crown. For the latter was built, or rather dug the dreaded Cave of Oubliettes located below the level of the Seine. You could find prisoners held for the most serious crimes: those who had violated the royal crown, treasury or were accused of black magic, or those having attacked people of royal blood.
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Le Caveau des Oubliettes has an impressive history. strange and terrible prison, considered a branch of the prison Chatelet, the vault was created in the twelfth century by Philip II Augustus (1165-1223). At the time, she was the special prison His Majesty the King.
Philippe Auguste, sometimes called the blind, who governed France for 43 years (1170-1223), was a “collector” of land and a town planner and increased the royal power whatsoever on the capital or the countryside. Under the reign of the blind, was founded a powerful and secret chancellery to identify the enemies of the crown. For the latter was built, or rather dug the dreaded Cave of Oubliettes located below the level of the Seine. You could find prisoners held for the most serious crimes: those who had violated the royal crown, treasury or were accused of black magic, or those having attacked people of royal blood.
A hatch opened while under the feet of the criminal who was thrown into the dungeon. There were no cells in the usual sense of the term. Instead, grids were embedded in the walls of the vaults at odd angles, so it is impossible to recover. Huddled, miserable prisoners awaited their last hour not knowing when it would come. Indeed, they were thrown into the Cave of Oubliettes without trial, and therefore indeterminate. Nobody knew exactly when the valves are open and the prisoners simply overwhelmed by the cold waters of the nearby Seine.
Then transformed into cabaret, the Cave of Oubliettes welcomed visitors shivering with iron cages containing skulls of the time displaying yellow and toothless smiles. Along a vaulted corridor, the guard room was transformed into a concert hall. In this room furnished with benches and carved oak tables, waitresses in bonnets and skirts embroidered lace welcomed visitors with mead . On stage, a place of honor, the main decoration was a real chastity belt. This “guardian of chastity” was used by the Crusaders to protect their honor around the waist and pelvis their wives while they went to the conquest of the Holy Sepulchre.
The tavern was once a kind of museum of torture, where thrill seekers could directly access the guard room through a narrow door beside the bar counter. This museum, located in a dungeon, gave access to the catacombs Paris. Could be found in the museum of torture toothed chairs, easels, pokers and a variety of clamps and other scary tools made for tearing flesh and with their instructions. Among the exhibits, one stood out “ puppet theater “on the theme of” crime and punishment “. Its creator, obviously a prisoner repentant manufactured the scenes and characters with lime scraped the walls of his cell. The centerpiece of the exhibition was a guillotine “unforgettable” of 1793. The revolutionary invention of the good Doctor Guillotin who was nicknamed by the people “the Widow.” the belief was that one that touched the executioner or weapons would end up on the scaffold. And in taverns, the landlord served the executioner turning his hand in the opposite direction to clockwise. The executioner was considered a pariah. The representatives of this profession took for the woman down executioner families, and the executioner position was passed from father to son or to the husband of his daughter. And the museum had the family tree of the Sanson dynasty, hereditary line of executioner who officiated from 1688 to 1847. During the French Revolution, the first class executioner, Charles-Henri Sanson executed Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Her son executed Robespierre and Henri Clement executioner Sanson of the seventh (and last) generation, was sent in a scandal that provoked after a difficult time, stole the guillotine.
Today the torture museum is closed, the guillotine of the torture museum was sold and the place became a bar concerts and jam sessions. The ground floor is a pub open from 17h, and the vault in the basement opens for live music every night from 22h. Deliberately facing a tinted modern jazz groove, soul, fusion, funk or blues , programming gives pride to the jam sessions on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. As and when the evening when the atmosphere begins to set, many musicians come to join the leaders of jams. It has also been able to cross Keziah Jones, Lucky Peterson or Prince. Le Caveau des Oubliettes offers intimate concerts that last until the end of the night.
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Caveau Des Oubliettes
