For many in Paris around 1900, weekend fun, almost in the style of a fairground attraction, included a stroll with the family to the mortuary, which was on the Quai de l’Archevêché, just behind Notre-Dame. Thousands of visitors viewed with morbid horror the unknown corpses on display there, which were only supposed to be identified. In this hustle and bustle must have happened what led to the legend of the “unknown from the Seine” with all its consequences.
Paris: The mysterious stranger from the Seine – society
