The Conciergerie and the Clock Tower

Look up at the great blue and gold clock on the corner. It has kept time here since 1370: it was the first public clock in Paris, installed on the orders of Charles V and built by the clockmaker Henri de Vic. Its present decoration, with two allegorical figures, dates from the reign of Henri III and is attributed to Germain Pilon.

1From royal palace to prison

These walls belonged to the old Palais de la Cité, home of the kings of France in the Middle Ages. In the fourteenth century, after the Parisian uprising led by Étienne Marcel, Charles V preferred to live elsewhere, and the palace was left to the Parlement and the royal administration. The concierge, a high official in charge of the building, gave his name to the part that ended up as a jail: the Conciergerie.

2The guillotine's waiting room

In 1793 the Revolutionary Tribunal moved into the palace, and the Conciergerie became the prison for those awaiting trial. Thousands passed through. The most famous was Marie Antoinette, held here from August 1793 until 16 October, when a cart took her to the scaffold.

In the months that followed, Danton, in the spring of 1794, and then Robespierre, at the end of the Terror, passed through these cells in turn.

3What to look out for

• The clock face, with its fleurs-de-lis and the figures of Law and Justice.
• The round towers facing the quay, with conical roofs: medieval at the base, heavily restored in the nineteenth century.
• The smaller crenellated tower, known as the Tour Bonbec, at the end of the range.