Raspail: station history
Served by: metro lines 4 and 6.
Did you know?
Served by lines 4 and 6, on the border of the 6th and 14th arrondissements, the station is under boulevard Raspail, at the junction with boulevard du Montparnasse, at the foot of place Denfert-Rochereau. It opened in 1906 with line 6, before line 4. It bears the name of François-Vincent Raspail, a 19th-century chemist, naturalist and politician.
Anecdote
In 1958, the RATP gave the Museum of Modern Art in New York the station's entrance portico, a reminder of the reach of Guimard's architecture. In 2008, the Mouton style, which had replaced the original tiling, gave way to a renovation, and line 4 was automated in 2017.
Around Raspail
- Fontaine des Quatre-Parties-du-Monde, 450 m away — A bronze fountain by Carpeaux depicting Africa, America, Asia and Europe holding a zodiac-adorned globe, in the Jardin des Grands Explorateurs.
- Musée du Service de Santé des Armées, 800 m away — Collections of military medical equipment and physicians' memorabilia, in the cloister of the former royal abbey of Val-de-Grâce.
- Musée Zadkine, 300 m away — The house-studio of sculptor Ossip Zadkine in Montparnasse, with a garden, showing around a hundred works from primitivism to cubism.
- Fondation Cartier, 400 m away — A contemporary art foundation with a glass architecture designed by Jean Nouvel, hosting bold exhibitions.
- Cimetière du Montparnasse, 450 m away — The second largest cemetery in Paris, the final resting place of Baudelaire, Sartre and Beauvoir.
- Marché Raspail, 1000 m away — A market known for its organic produce, held every Sunday on Boulevard Raspail.