Description of the attraction
In Paris, carefully studied and described, there is no place where some kind of mystery remains. The Medici Column, built in 1547, is one such place.
She stands in the Les Halles area, as if leaning against the wall of the Paris Commodity Exchange, and looks a little strange and out of place. Previously, the column was part of the palace of Catherine de Medici. After the death of the owner, the palace was resold several times, and in 1748 it was demolished. There is only a hollow Doric column 31 meters high and 3 meters wide, presumably by the architect Jean Bulland. The column is decorated with eighteen flutes with carved ornaments - crowns, royal lilies, cornucopia, monograms from the Latin letters C and H. These are the initials of Catherine de Medici and her beloved husband Henry II. Inside the column, a narrow spiral staircase with knocked down steps leads upstairs to a platform with a metal lattice in the form of a sphere.
Certainly, under Catherine de Medici, this column dominated the area. Was she a watchtower? A symbol of royal power? Or, as many researchers believe, this is the astronomical observatory used by the royal astrologer Ruggeri? Cosimo Ruggeri was the closest adviser of Catherine de Medici; before making important decisions, she always turned to him for predictions. Perhaps they together climbed 147 steps and climbed to the upper platform to watch the stars (the entrance to the column was just from the side of the palace).
Who will say for sure now? There is no evidence left. Ruggeri was considered by the people to be a sorcerer. It was said that when he died, his body was dragged through the streets of Paris and thrown on the side of the road, after which a dark figure was often seen at the top of the column at night. The tower itself was almost destroyed in the 18th century, but the writer Louis de Bachemont took pity on it, bought it and donated it to the city. The Bread Market appeared on the site of the royal palace, and when it burned down, it was replaced by the Commodity Exchange in 1889. The circular stock exchange building with a glass roof and steel structures is one of the first examples of collaboration between an architect (Belanger) and an engineer (Brunet). The Medici column is pressed against the wall of the stock exchange, at its foot is a fountain, no one else sees any figures at the top.
