Column today Cut of the column Medici with
its stairway and its metal top
This column, initially built in the courtyard of the Queen’s residence, has mysteriously survived time and men. In 1748, the manor which Catherine de Medici had built and which was renamed hôtel de Soissons, was ordered to be demolished. In its site, in 1760, was built the Halle aux blés. The Commodity Exchange replaced it in 1889. Despite all these changes and although it was slated for destruction many times, the column was spared. It towers, discreetly over the gardens of the Halles, reminds the inquisitive visitors that Cosimo Ruggieri was once there...
Interior sights of the column
Map of the hôtel de Soissons
The column is situated in the upper left angle of the illustration below on the right (southeast court of the property). The following were the streets surrounding this huge residence: in the South, the rue des Deux Ecus (today called Berger), in the West, the rue de Grenelle (J.J Rousseau, partly because of the Louvre), in the North, the rue Coquillière, and in the East the rue Du Four (today called rue Vauvilliers).
Bachaumont seated in front of the column
This etching of Carmontelle represents Mr. de Bachaumont, chronicler of the eighteenth century, seated in front of the column which he saved from being destroyed in 1748, by purchasing it and donating it to the city of Paris. The column remained over ten years on an empty lot by itself in the middle of Paris. Today, we can still see it solidly adjoined to the stock exchange. If we were to give it an address, it would be rue de Viarmes. This circular street is called “eternal street” as it has no beginning nor end. The Medici column seems also to have written its name in this image of eternity...
Evolution of the Commodity Exchange district from 1230 to 2008:
