A fire early Wednesday morning destroyed Marché des Enfants Rouges, the oldest covered food market in Paris, located in the Marais district. The blaze, which broke out shortly after 5 a.m., left the historic market "totally destroyed," according to Ariel Weil, the mayor of central Paris. Authorities confirmed the fire did not spread to nearby buildings, preventing further damage to the surrounding area.

Established in 1615 during the reign of Louis XIII, Marché des Enfants Rouges is Paris’s oldest surviving covered market. Its name derives from a nearby orphanage, the Hospice des Enfants Rouges, founded in 1536 by King Francis I and his sister Marguerite de Navarre. The orphanage’s children were known for wearing red clothing, which lent its name to the market.

The market had been recognized as a historic monument since 1982 and survived a near-demolition in the mid-1990s after Paris city officials proposed replacing it with an underground parking facility, a daycare center, and a community space. This plan faced strong opposition from local residents, neighborhood groups, and prominent cultural figures, including filmmakers and photographers such as Bertrand Tavernier and Willy Ronis, who had documented the market’s vendors. Their efforts, supported by tens of thousands of petitioners, led to the abandonment of redevelopment plans and ultimately to a six-year restoration project. Completed in 2000, the renovation, funded with around €3 million, preserved the market’s original wood, iron, and glass architectural features and transformed it into a bustling food court.

Before the fire, the 1,000-square-meter market housed traditional vendors such as greengrocers, butchers, cheesemongers, and fishmongers alongside numerous stalls offering a variety of international street foods, including French, Lebanese, Moroccan, and Japanese cuisine. It had earned a reputation as one of Paris’s trendiest food destinations. The market was described by the Time Out guide as “the coolest market in Paris” and was ranked fifth globally for street food by the website Food&Wine earlier this year.

Lieutenant Colonel Pierre de Bouvier of the Paris fire service reported that much of the market’s metal framework had collapsed and that most of the stalls were destroyed by the flames. Over 150 firefighters and 50 fire trucks responded to the emergency, receiving the first alert at 4:15 a.m. The cause of the fire remains under investigation as authorities assess the full extent of the damage.