Scene · 1897
Société de géographie – Léo Taxil's confession
Address · 184, boulevard Saint-Germain, 75006 Paris
Metro · Saint-Germain-des-Prés (4) / Rue du Bac (12)
Today · In operation. Headquarters of the Société de géographie, still active; seen from outside.
The story
The Société de géographie, founded in 1821, moved in 1878 into a mansion on boulevard Saint-Germain with a large lecture hall. Explorers reported on their expeditions there. Like other learned societies' halls, it was also rented out for public lectures, which explains how one of the most famous hoaxes of the end of the century came to be staged there. The building is a few steps from the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in a neighborhood of publishers and learned institutions.
Léo Taxil, a former anticlerical who had apparently converted, had been publishing revelations since 1885 about a supposed satanic cult, Palladism, said to control Freemasonry. His main character, Diana Vaughan, was finally to appear on 19 April 1897. Before a packed hall, Taxil explained that he had made it all up. Churton discusses the affair because Palladism was set against Gnostic and Martinist circles, and because Éliphas Lévi's image of Baphomet was misappropriated in it. The affair caused a scandal throughout the press.
The Société de géographie's hall still exists, and the society has its headquarters there. The facade on boulevard Saint-Germain bears the institution's name. You view it from outside, thinking of that evening when the credulity of an entire era was laid bare. The society still holds public lectures there, as in the 19th century, and the building still houses its library and collections. The boulevard is very busy.
To be checked · Coordinates estimated from the street number.