Why does the quartier de La Chapelle s'appelle-t-il ainsi ? When you ask the question, and you’re not a local, it’s hard to picture the building that might have given the name to this district. Yet it evokes a nearly forgotten past, buried beneath the capital’s expansion.
As with Passy, Batignolles, Vaugirard, or Auteuil, the name actually springs from an old village that became a commune, before being absorbed into Paris in 1860. The present-day Chapelle district thus covers part of this former commune of La Chapelle, for long separate from the capital.
The historic heart of the place is Saint-Denys de la Chapelle, today at 16 rue de la Chapelle. The medieval village centered on this church, which itself was preceded by a chapel built, according to tradition, by Saint Genevieve in 475. The past leaves its mark: it shows up in the rue de la Chapelle, the main artery of the old commune, in the Porte de la Chapelle, and, of course, in the Chapelle administrative district of the 18th arrondissement. Paris absorbed the commune, certainly, but it kept its label.
This church, one of the oldest and most overlooked in Paris, gave its name to the Chapelle district.
In the north of Paris, near Gare du Nord and the Porte de la Chapelle, a discreet church has left its mark on the map of the capital. As heir to a very ancient sanctuary, it lent its name to the old village and then to the Chapelle district, one of the most historied corners of the 18th arrondissement. [Read more]
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This church, one of the oldest and most overlooked in Paris, gave its name to the Chapelle district.
