Tribunal d’Instance

The decree came from the Emperor himself in 1856: Beaune would have a proper palais de justice, and it would go up exactly where convenience dictated. Architect Jean-Philippe Suisse and contractor Bourgoin-Jomain broke ground in 1857, positioning the new courthouse directly opposite the prison that had occupied the former Carmelite convent grounds since 1851. A new street, Rue du Tribunal, was carved out to formalize the relationship. Underground, a tunnel did the rest of the work, allowing the accused to travel from cell to courtroom without troubling the citizens of Burgundy with the sight of them.

The cornerstone ceremony, held that December, was attended by the sous-préfet, the clergy, assorted notables, and a priest from Notre-Dame who offered a prayer for the building’s future occupants, who would not be consulted on whether they wanted one. A bottle containing the ceremony’s official record and a sample of the era’s coinage was sealed into the foundation, a time capsule for a building whose principal function was to process people as efficiently as possible.

That efficiency had its limits. The prison’s roster over the following century included Pierrot le Fou, the nickname attached to more than one notorious French criminal and applied here without much concern for which one history would prefer to claim. The convent’s Carmelites, presumably, had different ambitions for the property.

The prison came down in 1986. The courthouse stayed, proof that in Beaune, justice outlasts everything except the people it was built for.