Prisonnières

Exhibition from September 17 to December 13, 2026

At the end of the Great War, all Parisians were familiar with the gloomy façade of Saint-Lazare prison, in the Faubourg Saint-Denis. Behind the dilapidated walls of this former convent, punishment and care were dispensed.

As Paris's only women's prison, it housed over a thousand inmates: those awaiting trial, those sentenced to short terms, prostitutes who had violated regulations or were suffering from syphilis. The latter were treated in the special infirmary, a veritable hospital-prison.

The fate of this institution, often compared to a leprosy in the heart of the capital, was decided in the 1920s, a period marked by repressive natalist policies and the anxiety of the "venereal peril". In 1932, the prison closed before being partially demolished.

The infirmary, initially transformed into a sanatorium for prostitutes, now houses the Françoise-Sagan media library. The exhibition aims to make visible and tangible this history, of which the current premises retain few traces.

Through images, books, archives, and objects from the collections of numerous institutions, the exhibition retraces the prison's final years.

It begins with an outdoor route in Square Alban Satragne, where large-format photographs allow visitors to discover the former prison in its urban environment.

The journey continues inside the media library, where the exhibition revisits the prison's final years, the multiple perspectives on the female prisoners and what they reveal about the female condition of the time, as well as the tenuous traces they themselves left behind: writings, graffiti, imprints testifying to the lives of these shadows of history.

Exhibition across two sites: Square Alban Satragne and the Médiathèque Françoise Sagan. This project was initiated by the association Histoire et vies du 10e, and supported by the Mairie du 10e arrondissement. A program of visits and activities is associated with the exhibition.

Visits on the occasion of the European Heritage Days.