Prison Saint-Paul

The prison was established in the mid-19th century, built to embody the hygienist ideals then sweeping across France since healthy sanitary norms were pushed by the heavy influence of the Enlightenment thinkers in the city of Lyon at the time. But what were originally two perfectly clean, respectful and well-maintained facilities soon turned into two overcrowded horror houses. Rats, cockroaches, trash covering the yard grounds… The prison had been, all throughout the 20th century, heavily criticized by the authorities and the people for its unsanitary and unsafe conditions. After all, the prisoners were not the only ones to suffer from these conditions: so did the prison wardens, stuck in a dirty, partitionless hellhole on a daily basis. These inhuman living conditions were what led to it being commonly called “La marmite du diable,” the devil’s cooking pot.

Another unknown fact about this place is that it hosted the World War II German officer Klaus Barbie, also called the “Butcher of Lyon,” for the last four years of his life. Following the war, the United States employed him for his anti-communist ideas, and helped him escape to Bolivia where he avoided trial. He was finally arrested in February 1983 and promptly delivered back to France. On 4 July 1987, Barbie was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. He who once trafficked in brutal efficiency as chief of the Gestapo in Lyon found himself fading away in a crumbling cell, in the very same rooms students of the UCLy now attend class. He was responsible for the execution or murder of over 4,000 individuals and for the deportation of 7,500 Jews, the majority of whom perished in Auschwitz.

Eventually, as a result of the many suicides registered within its walls, generating massive protests and demands to shut it down, the prison was closed on the 3rd of May 2009, and all remaining prisoners were relocated. The premises were abandoned and threatened to be destroyed months later. To prevent such a historical place from being wiped out, a successful petition was signed to protect these walls soaked in its rich, yet violent history. 

And wouldn’t you know it? The project which won the renewal competition was the one to open a 5,000 student campus in these premises, proposed by the Catholic University of Lyon!