The Conciergerie

If you ended up here during the Revolution, chances were you'd be heading straight to the guillotine next. That's why Parisians had a nickname for this place: the antechamber of death.

What you're looking at is actually older than the Louvre. Long before that famous palace existed, this was home to the French kings, going all the way back to the 6th century when the Frankish king Clovis made this island his capital. It stayed a royal residence until 1358, making it the oldest royal remnant in Paris.

The name Conciergerie comes from the "Concierge," not a doorman, but one of the most powerful officials in the kingdom, appointed by the king to keep order and maintain the prison records.

During the Revolution, in less than a year, more than 2,700 people were tried here by the Revolutionary Tribunal. Almost all were condemned. Among them was Queen Marie Antoinette, whose cell was later turned into a memorial chapel.

Then there's Maximilien Robespierre. He was the architect of the Reign of Terror, the man who sent thousands to the guillotine. In 1794, after his own allies turned on him, he ended up locked inside the very building he had used as a weapon.

The circle, as they say, closed itself.