TRUDAINE I MAUBEUGE
Crossed by the Avenue Trudaine and the Rue de Maubeuge, this lively district is also called the Rochechouart district, after the abbess of Montmartre, Marguerite de Rochechouart de Montpipeau.
Although it was originally a food district, due to the Rochechouart slaughterhouse built in 1810, it later became an industrial district with the installation of the first gasometer in the capital, located south of rue Pétrelle. It was in this district that the first working-class housing estate in the capital, called Cité Napoléon, was built between 1849 and 1851 and is now a listed building.
The district became very fashionable during the Belle Époque and has several intact examples of late 19th century architecture. Square Montholon in particular, the largest green space in the 9th arrondissement designed by Adolphe Alphand. Surrounded by Louis-Philippe style cast iron gates – the work of the founder Christophe-François Calla – they are the only remains of the original square. Also worth seeing are the two hundred-year-old Oriental plane trees planted on the central lawn.
