Who would have thought that sitting on a bench in the Villemin garden - Mahsa Jîna Amini, between strollers, runners and readers out for a stroll, that we are actually standing on the site of a former military hospital? Today, this bustling public garden runs along the Saint-Martin Canal, but its green setting sits atop a very different history: here stood the Villemin Military Hospital, closed in 1968, inside the buildings of the former Convent of the Récollets. The garden itself was created in 1977.
The site was initially that of the Recollets Convent, a religious complex founded in the 17th century. After the Revolution, the buildings were repurposed several times, then in 1861 they became a military hospital, first named Saint-Martin Hospital. In 1913, it took the name Villemin, in honor of the military physician Jean-Antoine Villemin, celebrated for proving the transmissibility of tuberculosis in 1865.
The choice of this site was no accident: its proximity to the Nord and East stations enabled rapid transport of the wounded. In times of conflict, this location was therefore strategic. It’s a far cry—from a Sunday picnic.
That hospital past hasn’t entirely disappeared. The monumental door of the former hospital is still visible at 8, rue des Récollets. In other words, when you enter the garden, you still pass through a very tangible remnant of that old military and medical life.
Following the hospital’s closure, the site endured a period of uncertainty: it could have been drastically redeveloped as part of the era’s major urban projects. In the end, Paris turned it into a green space, and the preserved Recollets buildings today host, notably, the Maison de l’architecture en Île-de-France.
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Location
Jardin Villemin
14 rue des Recollets
75010 Paris 10
