On the heights of Belleville, a small stone building topped with a dome and a small lantern guards the access to an old water network. The Regard de la Lanterne was built between 1583 and 1613 to serve as the main regard of the great Belleville aqueduct, which carried part of the hill’s water to buildings on the Right Bank.
A regard is a structure that gives access to a conduit. This one is circular in plan; inside, a double staircase leads down to a basin into which flows the water drained from the top of the hill.
The waters of Belleville
The first channels were dug in the 12th century by the monks of the abbey of Saint-Martin-des-Champs. The water first flowed in the open, about two metres below ground, before being carried in underground conduits, the “pierrées”. The city of Paris built the great Belleville aqueduct in the 13th and 14th centuries to supply the population: a gallery 750 metres long, wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The various networks were connected to it in the 18th century.
The regard was listed as a historic monument on 4 November 1899. This listing was replaced on 26 February 2006 by that of all the structures associated with the waters of Belleville. The building now stands in the Jardin du Regard-de-la-Lanterne, to which it gave its name, on rue Augustin-Thierry, in the 19th arrondissement.
Sources: base Mérimée, records PA00086774 and PA75200003
This tour is part of the catalogue of virtual tours of underground heritage.
