Merchants Squares

Carres Saint-Louis is a neighborhood in Versailles, France, created by King Louis XIV at the center of his new Quartier Saint-Louis. At the intersection of Rue Royale and Rue d'Anjou — an area known as the Place du Parc-aux-Cerfs — the King authorized merchants to build baraques: single-story shop-houses with a street-front room, a cellar and a back room with a fireplace and windows opening onto a Carre, the public square behind each row. The four Carres were each dedicated to a specific food trade: the Carre a la Maree, later called the Carre au Puits, for seafood; the Carre a la Boucherie, later the Carre a la Terre, for meat; the Carre a l'Avoine, which kept its name, for horse feed; and the Carre aux Herbes, now the Carre a la Fontaine, for fruits and vegetables. During the reign of Louis XV, the quarter was permitted to add a second story to the baraques. - AsNotedIn