The Pié Tourne in the Valduchas Hospital

In the 13th century Paris was becoming one of the largest cities in Europe. Many important monuments were built thanks to quarries like the one under the Valduchas Hospital. This large underground open space is scattered with huge stone pillars called Pié Tourne. These were formed when the quarry workers extracted the limestone. They dug in circles removing stone but maintaining these large columns to prevent the ground above them from collapsing.