Marché Beauvau, the covered market on the place d’Aligre since 1779

The Marché Beauvau, the covered market on the place d’Aligre, was built in 1779 by the architect Samson-Nicolas Lenoir on land bought from the nuns of the Abbey of Saint-Antoine. Louis XVI had allowed them in 1777 to build a market in the faubourg.

That year it was named Beauvau-Saint-Antoine in honour of Gabrielle-Charlotte de Beauvau-Craon, the last abbess of Saint-Antoine, from 1760 to 1790. From 1778 the district was redrawn around it: several new streets were cut, all leading to the place d’Aligre, and the existing market was enlarged.

The present hall and its guardhouse were built in 1843 by Marc-Gabriel Jolivet, architect to the City of Paris, on the new place d’Aligre. The building was listed as a historic monument on 8 March 1982. On the night of 6 July 2015, a fire, probably electrical, damaged part of it.

In the north of the 12th arrondissement, the hall fills the western half of the place d’Aligre, where the Aligre street market is also held every day except Monday. Two main aisles cross at right angles around a central fountain, between stalls of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and cheese.