About thirty years ago, the welcoming and lively Place de l’Évêché, as we know it today, did not yet exist. It will be created out of nothing, on the site of a block of houses, crossed by two alleys and a dead end. If two interesting sections of the parallel streets of l’Évêché and Sans-Peur still remain, nothing remains of the narrow and obscure crossing of the Market, which then connects rue Sans-Peur to that of the Poissonnerie.
However, the trained eye can still discover some traces of this ancient passage, by observing the facades of the houses which today overlook the new square.
Interesting remains
The Market Crossing unites two important economic centers: rue de la Mégisserie, which later became Sans-Peur, and place Roustan, the original medieval market square. By taking the crossing, merchants and customers can easily pass from one site to another, without going through the Fish Market.
The notion of place is not a characteristic of medieval urban planning. At the time, vacant spaces intra muros do not have the meaning that we attribute to them today. They remain limited due to the density of housing and have a purely economic aspect. The squares are not considered by the city dwellers of the time as places of relaxation dedicated to walking or resting.
As its name suggests, rue de la Mégisserie is home to several tanners’ workshops. Skins are processed there and the adjoining shops offer a range of bags, belts and other gloves.
The Market crossing, whose ground floors house several sheds used by the neighborhood’s merchants, was still very busy at the beginning of the last century. It opens in front of the front of a novelty store.
The rehabilitated buildings still have a few semi-circular doors and torn walls, vestiges of the numerous arches which overhang the old crossing. The potbellied wall of a facade evokes the particular architecture of Grasse’s medieval houses.
This crossing located in the heart of the lower town will remain an important alley for a long time, close to large multi-storey bazaars, herb and fish markets and the Place de la Boucherie, the former medieval slaughterhouse.
