Saint-Michel Fountain

The Saint-Michel fountain, gateway to the Latin Quarter

The Paris audio-guided tour stops you before the Saint-Michel fountain, a monumental entrance to the Latin Quarter. Twenty-six metres high and fifteen wide, it was built to dress the gable of a building during the great works of the nineteenth century.

At the foot of the old medieval wall

In the Middle Ages, you would have stood here close to the Saint-Michel gate, one of the entrances to the city ringed by the wall of Philip Augustus, built at the end of the twelfth century. Paris was then nestled around the Île de la Cité. The fountain, erected under the Second Empire when Boulevard Saint-Michel was cut through, today marks the symbolic threshold of the student quarter.

What there is to see

The fountain depicts the archangel Saint Michael slaying the demon, framed by columns and statues, in a monumental decor where water streams between bronze dragons. It is an emblematic meeting point of the Left Bank, lively day and night, a stone's throw from the Seine and the Île de la Cité.

Practical information

The Saint-Michel fountain is on Place Saint-Michel, at the corner of Boulevard Saint-Michel and the quay, in the 5th and 6th arrondissements of Paris. It can be discovered freely at all hours and on the level. It is the ideal starting point for a walk in the Latin Quarter.

What does the Saint-Michel fountain represent?

It depicts the archangel Saint Michael slaying the demon, in a monumental decor twenty-six metres high, erected in the nineteenth century.

What was here in the Middle Ages?

In the Middle Ages, the Saint-Michel gate, one of the entrances of the wall of Philip Augustus, stood nearby, marking the edge of the medieval city.