Rue de la Harpe, Paris

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5e Arrt.

Rue de la HARPE

Arrondissement	Ve
Quarter	Sorbonne
Begins	31 rue de la Huchette
Ends	98 boulevard Saint-Germain
Length	220 m
Width	12 m
Creation
Denomination	Arr. préf. du 10 mai 1851, réunion de l'ancienne rue de la Harpe.


View northwards along Paris' rue de la Harpe.

The rue de la Harpe is a street in Paris' Latin Quarter. Relatively calm and cobblestoned along much of its length, it runs in a south-easterly direction between the rue de la Huchette and the rue Saint-Séverin, where it turns south-west to where it ends at the boulevard Saint-Germain. It is a largely residential street; it is graced through its odd numbers (eastern side) with a few buildings dating from the Louis XV period, but buildings along the opposite side of the street are most all of a 'Haussmannian' style of a more recent stature. Its street-front commerces are varied to its southern end, but tend towards restaurants and the tourism trade towards the river. It appeared in the 19th Century magazine, The Tell Tale, as the site of the murders which may have been the origin of Thomas Prest's Sweeney Todd story.

1 Name Origin
2 History
3 Constructions of note
4 References
5 Notes

[edit] Name Origin

Name of a 13th century sign.

[edit] History

The rue de la Harpe below its twist to the west at the rue Saint-Séverin, dates from Roman times. Leaving Lutèce's (Roman Paris') main north-south thoroughfare just below the Petit-Pont it turned south to become a roadway parallel to the first known as as the "via inferior" ("lower road"). Before it was cut short below the Boulevard Saint-Germain by the construction of the Boulevard Saint-Michel from 1859, it continued under more or less the same name until Paris' former 12th-century ''Porte Saint-Michel" gate at the corner of today's rue Soufflot and Boulevard Saint-Michel. The rue de la Harpe's 'newer' westward twist above the rue Saint-Séverin owes its existence to first a "bac" footbridge crossing the river from its end, then the construction of the first version of the pont Saint-Michel from 1378.

Former Names: To the south of the rue Saint-Séverin, the rue de la Harpe has been known as: "rue de la Juiverie", "rue de la Vielle Juiverie," "vicus Cithare in Judearia" (1247), "vicus Judeorum" (1257), "vicus Harpe (1270)", "vicus Herpe" ou "vicus de Cithara" (1254), and finally "rue de la Herpe" or "Harpe." Beyond Paris' 12th-century walls it became "rue Neuve Outre la Porte Saint-Michel" or simply the "rue d'Énfer" (literally "street of Hell").

In its section between the rue Saint-Séverin and the river was named: "Vicus Reginaldi Citharatoris" (1247), "vicus Reginaldi dicti le Harpeur" (1265), "vicus Vetus Bouclearia", "vicus Vetus Judearia", "rue de la Vielle Boucherie" (1272), "rue de la Petite Bouclerie" (1300), "rue de l'Abreuvoir Mascon" (1391), "rue Neuve Mâcon" or "rue de l'Abreuvoir Mâcon" (1401), "rue de l'Abreuvoir Mâcon" or "rue Neuve Saint-Michel" (1409), "rue Neuve du pont Saint-Michel" or "de la Bouclerie" (1406), "rue de la Grant Bouclerie" (1405), "rue Neuve Saint-Michel" (1469) and "rue de la Vielle Bouclerie".

In 1800 Joseph Fouche, the Parisian chief of police, documented a series of murders undertaken by a barber and baker on this street. They are often cited as the first serial killers, and also it is argued that the pair were a significant influence in the famous story of the barber Sweeney Todd of Fleet Street, London, and his baker accomplice Mrs. Lovett. ^[1] The French story, however, smacks of being an urban myth and the supposed book by Fouché is impossible to trace.

[edit] Constructions of note

35 - Building dating from the Louis XV period; much of it is protected under a "Historical Monument" appellation. This property has the particularity of having a winding series of courtyards that lead to an adjoining property at 20, rue de la Parchemenerie.