Saint-Marcel: origin of the name and station history
Served by: metro line 5, Transilien J.
Why this name?
A line 5 station in the 13th arrondissement, under boulevard de l'Hôpital, between Gare d'Austerlitz and Campo-Formio. It opened with the first section of line 5, between Gare d'Orléans (now Gare d'Austerlitz) and Place d'Italie. Its name comes from the start of boulevard Saint-Marcel, itself named after the faubourg Saint-Marceau. Towards Bobigny - Pablo Picasso, it is the last underground station before the southern elevated section of the line.
Anecdote
Its « Boulevard de l'Hôpital - La Pitié-Salpêtrière » entrance is a Guimard edicule listed as a historic monument, located at one of the hospital's gates. One of the station's entrances appears in a scene in the opening moments of Claude Autant-Lara's « La Traversée de Paris ». The station was fully renovated as part of the « Renouveau du métro » programme, with bevelled white tiles, a white-painted vault and wooden-slat benches on the platforms.
Around Saint-Marcel
- Jardin des Plantes, 450 m away — Founded in 1635 by an edict of Louis XIII as a garden of medicinal plants, it is France's main botanical garden and the seat of the National Museum of Natural History. Buffon, who directed it from 1739 to 1788, roughly doubled its size.
- Musée de l'Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, 3250 m away — France's oldest hospital museum, tracing the history of Parisian healthcare through paintings, ceramics and historic medical objects.
- Manufacture des Gobelins, 600 m away — A royal workshop founded in the 17th century that still weaves exceptional tapestries for the French state today.
- Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, 190 m away — A vast historic hospital, one of the largest hospital complexes in Europe.