Residence · 1865-1880s
Abbé Lacuria's garret
Address · 11, rue Thouin, 75005 Paris
Metro · Place Monge (7) / Cardinal Lemoine (10)
Today · Private, seen from the street. Residential building, seen from the street.
The story
Rue Thouin is a small street on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, between rue de l'Estrapade and rue du Cardinal-Lemoine, a few steps from the Panthéon. In the 19th century the neighborhood was home to students, priests and impoverished scholars. Abbé Lacuria (1806-1890), a priest from Lyon who had come to Paris as a tutor, rented a garret here in 1865, after living on rue de Fourcy in the Marais. The rent was modest and the learned libraries close at hand.
In 1844 Lacuria had published Les Harmonies de l'être exprimées par les nombres, a work of Pythagorean theology that caused him difficulties with his superiors. Churton takes up the description by the photographer Félix Thiollier, his former pupil: a nearly silent piano, books everywhere, a wire grill for toasting bread. Péladan, who considered him one of the greatest Platonic theologians, described his visit with emotion. His visitors left marked by his kindness.
Lacuria ended his life in the Lyon region and died blind in Oullins in 1890. The building on rue Thouin is an ordinary residence. The place illustrates the other face of occult Paris: not the fashionable salons, but the discreet transmission of mystical knowledge from an old priest to young admirers. The street remains peaceful and close to place de la Contrescarpe. The Panthéon and rue de l'Estrapade, which Péladan passed along on his visits, are only a few minutes away.
To be checked · Coordinates estimated from the street number.