The Parisian house of Notre-D’Ourcamps Abbey
The Maison d’Ourcamps was the Parisian residence of the abbots of Notre-Dame d’Ourcamps, a Cistercian abbey founded in the 12th century in the Oise department, north of Paris.
The abbots built their first townhouse in the mid-13th century on a plot of land located today between Rue François Miron and Rue Geoffroy-l’Asnier. This building served primarily as a warehouse to store the products produced by the abbey and sold to Parisians.
This residence was spread over three levels. The 200 square metres vaulted cellar provided storage space, while the ground-floor hall, adorned with magnificent columns, served as a shop. The monks’ dormitories were located on the upper floor.
The abbots replaced this first house around 1585 with the current Maison d’Ourcamps and filled the vast vaulted cellar with demolition rubble.
Thus, during restoration work carried out in the 1960s, numerous architectural features of this 13th-century residence, including fragments of the arched windows of the main façade, were discovered in the vaulted cellar. They, along with sculptures and finely carved stones, are now on display in the vaulted cellar and the ground-floor hall.
La Commission du Vieux Paris saved la Maison d’Ourcamps
The monks were expelled during the French Revolution, and the Maison d’Ourcamps became state property.
A succession of merchants acquired it, each making significant alterations to adapt it to their trade and renaming it Maison de Marsande and Maison de l’Ours (House of the Bear).
Over time, these transformations unfortunately deteriorated the building. Thus, not only did the Maison d’Ourcamps fall into disrepair, but it was also neglected.
By the mid-20th century, its advanced state of decay had relegated it to the list of unsanitary buildings slated for demolition.
Today, the Maison d’Ourcamps houses the headquarters of the Commission du Vieux Paris (Commission for Old Paris), an advisory body created in 1897 and placed under the authority of the Mayor of Paris.
Tasked with safeguarding the city’s historical, archaeological, architectural, and urban heritage, the commission meets monthly to review building permit applications and formulate recommendations that are then published in the Official Bulletin of the municipalities.
In the early 1960s, the Maison d’Ourcamps, like other abandoned buildings, was threatened with demolition. The commission strongly opposed this decision and advocated for its preservation.
Despite the initial reluctance of the Paris City Council, which considered the building too dilapidated to be restored, the mayor authorised the Commission du Vieux Paris to undertake its renovation at its own expense.
Thus, thanks to the dedication of volunteers and the support of private donors, restoration work uncovered remarkable remains dating back to the 13th century, leading to the facade, roof, and staircase being listed as historical monuments in 1966.
Today, guided tours allow you to explore the cellars and delve into Paris’s medieval past. And the “icing on thecake” is that the Maison d’Ourcamps is located near superb medieval houses, ranked among the oldest in Paris
Directions: 4th district – nos44-46 rue François Miron
Metro: Hôtel-de-Ville on Line 1,11 or Saint-Paul on Line 1
Coordinates: Lat 48.855546 – Long 2.357089
