Abbesses: station history
Served by: metro line 12.
Did you know?
A line 12 station in the 18th arrondissement, under place des Abbesses, whose name refers to the abbesses of the Dames de Montmartre abbey. Its platforms are 36 metres below the surface, making it the deepest station within Paris of the metro; it is reached by two lifts or by two interlocking spiral staircases of 176 steps. It opened nearly three months after the inauguration of the second extension of Nord-Sud line A, from Pigalle to Jules Joffrin.
Anecdote
The Guimard edicule known as the « dragonfly », listed as a historic monument, originally came from Hôtel de Ville station; it was reassembled here in 1974. The low vault was designed to withstand the pressure of the gypsum. The original Nord-Sud decoration, in brown ceramics with interlaced « NS » letters, was restored in 2007 after the emergency removal of the metal cladding because of water seepage. The station was used as a location for « Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain » and Roman Polanski's « Le Locataire ».
Around Abbesses
- Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, 450 m away — A Romano-Byzantine basilica completed in 1914, crowning Paris from the top of the Butte Montmartre. Its dome offers one of the finest panoramas over the capital.
- Place du Tertre, 300 m away — A picturesque square where painters have displayed and sketched passers-by for over a century, the touristic heart of old, village-like Montmartre.
- Moulin de la Galette, 400 m away — One of the last windmills of Montmartre, immortalised by Renoir in his famous 1876 painting 'Bal du moulin de la Galette'.