Histories of the architecture and urban landscape of medieval Paris have often concentrated on the impressive works of patronage of male rulers, for example Louis IX (1214–1270) and Charles V (1338–1380). But the paradigms we inherit are inflected with centuries of male-focused policies, histories, and social conceptions, often leading scholars to overlook or even erase women’s important contributions to the cityscape of Paris. This project seeks to undo this erasure and demonstrate that women, their bodies, their commissions, and their interactions were not only there, but were simply everywhere. It was not at all exceptional to see their marks on the urban landscape, their presence in work spaces, their bodies in processions in the streets, their tombs in the chapels of ecclesiastical spaces, and their generosity on display throughout the city. By mapping these sites, the many women patrons, workers, residents, and monastics come into view together.

The Filles-Dieu

Present-day location: 219 Rue Saint-Denis

Saint-Antoine-des-Champs

Founded in the twelfth century as a home for repentant sex workers, Saint-Antoine-des-Champs later featured a church dedicated to the anchorite Saint Antoine. Jeanne de France and Bonne de France were both buried at this site in 1360.
Present-day location: 184 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine

Saint-Pierre de Montmartre

Present-day location: 2 Rue du Mont-Cenis

The Filles Repenties

Present-day location: 2 Rue de Viarmes

Collège de Navarre

The Collège de Navarre was erected between 1309-1315 under the testamentary orders of Queen Jeanne de Navarre et Champagne (1273–1305), wife of Philippe IV (1268-1314). That this institution displayed female support of education on such a monumental scale adds to the innovative nature of the commissions. A mother’s role in the education of her children was one that these queens’ saintly and learned ancestor, Louis IX, had frequently espoused.
Present-day location: 5 Rue Descartes

Collège de Bourgogne

The Collège de Bourgogne was built according to the wishes of a deceased queen–Jeanne de Bourgogne et Artois, daughter-in-law to Jeanne de Navarre, and wife of Philippe V, and it was dedicated in 1333.
Present-day location: 12 Rue de l'École de Médecine

Hôtel de Nesle (Jeanne de Bourgogne et Artois)

Jeanne de Bourgogne had inherited her hotel, known as the Hôtel de Nesle, before she was queen when she and her husband Philippe were still just countess and count of Burgundy. It was to this residence, located on the banks of the Seine in a tower of the city wall, that she retired after her husband’s death in 1322. In later years, the Hôtel de Nesle and Hôtel de Navarre were described as two of the most lovely residences in Paris.
Present-day location: 11 Quai de Conti

Hôtels de Navarre, Evreux

The Hôtel de Navarre was located on the rue Saint-André-des-Arts, near the porte de Bucy and the porte de Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Jeanne de Navarre had kept a separate household from her husband’s and resided in this hotel of the kings of Navarre when in Paris. In later years, the Hôtel de Navarre was described as one of the most lovely residences in Paris, enabling Jeanne de Navarre to fund the foundation of the Collège de Navarre for the most part from its sale.

Hôtel d’Artois (Mahaut d’Artois and Jeanne de Bourgogne et Artois)

Mahaut d'Artois owned the Hôtel d'Artois and generously donated land from the site for the Hôpital Saint-Jacques-aux-Pèlerins. On February 18, 1319, Mahaut's daughter, Jeanne de Bourgogne et Artois, queen of France and wife of Philippe V, laid the fist stone for the foundation of the hôpital. Later, during Jeanne's 1330 funeral procession, her body would have passed by her former Hôtel d’Artois (now the residence of her daughter and heir, Jeanne de France, countess of Artois and Burgundy (1308–49)).
Present-day location: 133 Rue Saint-Denis

Le Temple

Queen Clémence de Hongrie (1293-1328), wife of Louis X, resided at this estate after the death of her husband in 1316. Her post-mordem inventory records rich collections of jewels, plate, textiles, reliquaries, and figural metalwork.
Present-day location: 7 Rue Perrée

The Jacobins

A major Dominican church in Paris, numerous medieval women chose this as a burial site.
Present-day location: 160 Rue Saint-Jacques

The Cordeliers

The Cordeliers was the popular name of the male Franciscanmonastic house representing the order in Paris. It is the site of what we are calling a burial line of women.
Present-day location: 15 Rue de l'École de Médecine

Sainte-Chapelle

Marie de Brabant’s (1255-1322) 1274 marriage to Philippe III recorded by Guillaume de Nangis–the first to take place in the recently completed Sainte-Chapelle–attracted noble guests (described in elegant detail) from across Europe.

The Cordelières (St-Marcel/Lourcine)

Women’s monastic houses were in many ways the equivalents of the college for men, and of course women patronized monastic houses for women in Paris. The Cordelières, or the Filles de Saint Claire de la pauvreté Notre-Dame, was such an institution patronized by Queen Marguerite de Provence (1221–1295), widow of Louis IX, and her daughter Blanche de la Cerda (1252–1320).
Present-day location: 54-56 Rue Pascal

The Béguinage

Founded by Louis IX after returning from crusade in 1254, by the end of his reign around four hundred women lived at the main beguinage on the Right Bank.
Present-day location: 4 Rue du Fauconnier

Silk Production

Mapping the concentrations of workers in the silk industry, where non-elite women were central figures, helps to highlight neighborhoods where women including Beguines and many others featured prominently.

1318 Procession from the (former) Porte Saint-Denis to Saint-Magloire

Queen Clémence de Hongrie (1293–1328), Queen Jeanne de Bourgogne et Artois (1292–1330), Blanche de Bretagne (1271–1327), Mahaut d’Artois (1268–1329), and Pernelle de Sully, Countess de Dreux (c. 1285–1338) participated in a solemn procession on July 9, 1318. Torrential rains had ruined crops and washed out roads and bridges, and chroniclers recorded people starving in the streets.The procession began at the great Porte Saint-Denis, wound through streets decorated for the event along the rue Oues and then right down the rue Salle-au-Comte, entering Saint-Magloire through the cemetery in the back. The pace was slow with stops along the route to sing and pray. Clerics transferred the arm bone of Saint Magloire from an older wooden reliquary to a beautiful new silver-gilt one, and then the women each offered gifts like jeweled and enameled clasps, silk textiles, and silver-gilt lamps upon the altar.
Saint-Magloire present-day location: 88 Rue Saint Denis

Hôpital Saint-Jacques-aux-Pélerins

On February 18, 1319, Jeanne de Bourgogne et Artois, as queen of France and wife of Philippe V, laid the first stone for the foundation of the new Hôpital Saint-Jacques-aux-Pèlerins to accommodate pilgrims on their way to or from Santiago de Compostela and to provide a place to meet and worship for the local Confrèrie dedicated to Saint Jacques. During the dedication, Queen Jeanne was surrounded by her mother, Mahaut d’Artois, and three of Jeanne’s four daughters and some accounts say each one in turn laid an additional stone.
Present-day location: 111 Rue Saint Denis

Les Halles des Champeaux

As it is today, Paris was a hub for fashion in the fourteenth century, and an exciting primary-source account describes such delectable textiles that were available in a multi-story mall with vendors offering a wide variety of clothes and adornments, perhaps even purses like the one mentioned here.
Present-day location: 21 Rue Berger

View All Locations

Women's Monastic Houses

The Filles-Dieu
Saint-Antoine-des-Champs
Saint-Pierre de Montmartre
The Filles Repenties
The Cordelières (St-Marcel/Lourcine)
The Béguinage

Foundations

Collège de Navarre
Collège de Bourgogne
Hôpital Saint-Jacques-aux-Pélerins

Residences

Hôtel de Nesle (Jeanne de Bourgogne et Artois)
Hôtels de Navarre, Evreux
Hôtel d’Artois (Mahaut d’Artois and Jeanne de Bourgogne et Artois)
Le Temple

Burials

The Jacobins
The Cordeliers

Processions

Sainte-Chapelle
1318 Procession from the (former) Porte Saint-Denis to Saint-Magloire

Material Culture Sites

Silk Production
Les Halles des Champeaux

Meet the Authors

Mariah Proctor-Tiffany

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Tracy Chapman Hamilton

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