Bonne Nouvelle (Paris Métro)

Infobox Paris metro
Name=Bonne Nouvelle
Day=5 May
Year=1931
Access=
Municipality=the 2nd arrondissement of Paris
Zone=1
Next=
X=155
Y=59

Bonne Nouvelle is a station of the Paris Métro, named after the "Boulevard de Bonne-Nouvelle".

History

The Boulevard was built on the route of a wall built under Charles V in the late 14th century. In the late 17th century, under Louis XIV, the wall was demolished and the moats filled in to create a boulevard. The levelling of the boulevard relieved the food shortage of thousands of unemployed workers during the winter of 1709, when it reached 21 degrees below zero celsius.

The boulevard was named after an original chapel that was built about 1563 and was dedicated to Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle (our lady of good news), referring to the Annunciation. The chapel was demolished in 1591 by the Catholic League during the siege of Paris by the future Henry IV. Queen Anne of Austria laid the first stone of a new church in 1624. It was demolished in 1823, except the bell-tower which was integrated into the current building, built by Godde between 1823 to 1829.

The 17th Century incarnation of Notre-Dame de Bonne Nouvelle (Our Lady of Good News) faced west (as possibly did the 16th C version), onto the two-block street of the same name, rue N-D de Bonne Nouvelle. This was when the buildings east of the church, sloping down to the arch of Porte St-Denis, were a graveyard.

The current church dates to 1830 and is the neo-classical product of architect Hippolyte Godde. Its entrance, facing north at 25, rue de la Lune, has Tuscan columns before a bold, cool, barrel-vaulted interior. At one point in 2006, the lovely square clock jutting over rue Beauregard, off of the 17th C belltower, was stuck at 12 O'Clock. High noon or midnight? Regardless, twice a day it was right.